Arezzo Wave is a famous Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

 that takes place every July in Arezzo

Arezzo

Arezzo is a city and comune in Central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 km southeast of Florence, at an elevation of 296 m above sea level. In 2011 the population was about 100,000....

 since 1987.

Born exclusively as a launching platform for young Italian rock groups, in its current form, the festival lasts six days and is totally free of charge. In recent years, the festival has multiplied the number of its venues in the city and accommodated an ever-increasing number of extra-musical cultural activities.

History

The first edition of Arezzo Wave took place in 1987, entitled "Provincia insonne," featured sixteen emerging groups from all of Italy (without any recording contract) on four nights. The concerts took place in the Fortezza Medicea di Arezzo. In subsequent years, the festival has put faith in its "launching" work, also starting in parallel to call already-famous emerging groups onto the European scene. In 1991, the Mano Negra

Mano Negra

Mano Negra was a music band in France, during 1987–1995, fronted by Manu Chao.The band, founded in 1987 by Chao, his brother Antoine, and his cousin Santiago Casariego in Paris, France, was very influential in Europe during the early 1990s. Although it reached mainstream success in countries...

 and the Leningrad Cowboys

Leningrad Cowboys

The Leningrad Cowboys is a Finnish rock band famous for humorously making rock and roll covers of popular songs, exaggerated pompadour hairstyles, long, pointy shoes, often featuring a Russian military band, the Alexandrov Ensemble.-Beginnings:...

 arrived, and the "discoveries" Afterhours and Almamegretta

Almamegretta

Almamegretta are a SKA /rap/dub/world/reggae group from Naples, Italy. Their lyrics are in Napoletano. Their music became quite successful, leading to remix work for Massive Attack. Adrian Sherwood also remixed their album "Sanacore".-History:...

 came. Pablo Echaurren began designing the festival's sets, which have grown thanks to the generosity and financial support of various institutes, including the French Minister of Culture Jack Lang

Jack Lang (French politician)

Jack Mathieu Émile Lang is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party, he served as France's Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and 1988 to 1992, and as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002. He was also the Mayor of Blois from 1989 to 2000...

.

In the years hence, the Arezzo Wave became a privileged venue for new Italian groups of the nineties: Mau Mau, Frankie Hi-NRG MC

Frankie Hi-NRG MC

Frankie HI-NRG MC, born Francesco Di Gesù , is an Italian rapper of Sicilian origins. Frankie HI-NRG has been active since the early stages of the Italian hip hop movement in the early 1990s, and predominantly discusses Politics and Society in his music.- Biography :Born in Turin, Italy, he...

, Ritmo tribale ... The venue has relocated twice and the number of participants has grown to a point where it has definitely come to be accepted on the public stage. In the afternoon, another venue (the "Psycho Stage") began near the city center. Along with artists of such caliber as David Byrne

David Byrne (musician)

David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...

, Nick Cave

Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...

, Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

, Moby

Moby

Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...

, Tricky

Tricky

Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...

, Ben Harper

Ben Harper

Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...

, the festival has continued to accommodate emerging Italian bands on the Psycho Stage, and has divided the nights between Italian ethnic music, techno

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

, and hard rock

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

. All the major Italian rock artists have passed through the Arezzo Wave: Max Gazzè, Daniele Silvestri, Jovanotti

Jovanotti

Lorenzo Cherubini, better known as Jovanotti, is an Italian singer-songwriter and rapper.The name Jovanotti derives from the plural form of the Italian word giovanotto , i.e. giovanotti. Lorenzo Cherubini originally auditioned a band with the name "I Giovanotti", but the record producer only was...

, CSI

Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti

Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, also C.S.I. is an Italian band evolved from former punk/art band CCCP Fedeli alla linea....

, Tiromancino

Tiromancino

Tiromancino is an Italian pop group founded in 1989. It was started by Federico Zampaglione and has released 9 albums. Their music is a subtle blend of folk and electronica...

, Bandabardò

Bandabardò

Bandabardò is an Italian folk band. It was formed in 1993. Bandabardò is noted as a live band. Their album Tre Passi Avanti charted at #7 in Italy the week of its release, and Bondo! Bondo! charted at #10....

, Negrita, Marlene Kuntz

Marlene Kuntz

Marlene Kuntz is an Italian band from Cuneo. Initially they were inspired by the noise rock of Sonic Youth. The name is a merge of Marlene Dietrich's name and the slang word cunt.-History:...

, Morgan

Morgan

-Places:Australia*Morgan, South AustraliaCanada*Morgan, OntarioUnited States*Morgan, California*Morgan, Georgia*Morgan, Minnesota*Morgan, Texas*Morgan, Utah*Morgan, Vermont*Morgan, Wisconsin, a town...

, Samuele Bersani

Samuele Bersani

Samuele Bersani is an Italian singer-songwriter. Between his best known songs, Giudizi Universali and Replay, the latest being the song that won the "Mia Martini" Critics Award at the Sanremo Music Festival....

, Carmen Consoli

Carmen Consoli

Carmen Consoli is an Italian singer-songwriter. She has released 7 studio albums and 2 live albums.-Life and biography:Consoli was born in Sicily, near the city of Catania, in the small town of San Giovanni La Punta...

, Subsonica

Subsonica

Subsonica is an Italian rock band that was formed in 1996 in Turin. Their eponymous debut album debuted in the spring of 1997. The band gained real success in 2000 by playing the Sanremo Music Festival...

, Pankow

Pankow (Italian band)

Pankow is an Italian/German Electronic & EBM band, formed in 1979 and headed by Maurizio Fasolo. In its early days, the songs were in German , with singer Alex Spalck. Like the East German band of the same name, Pankow was named after the Pankow district of Berlin...

...

The festival today

In 2006, the 20th edition will take place from the 11th to the 16th of July. In the last two editions, the festival has offered, beyond the principal venue on stage, an afternoon venue (the "Psycho Stage") and an early-bird (the "Wake-up Stage"), cabaret contests, cinema events, and comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

s, theater, concerts of classical music in central public squares of the city. Like every year, the final program will be published on official site around the month of June 2006.

For various reasons, mainly due to lack of funding from the Arezzo province, in 2007 the Arezzo Wave festival relocated to Sesto Fiorentino

Sesto Fiorentino

Sesto Fiorentino is a municipality in the province of Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. It has c. 46,700 inhabitants.- History :The oldest known human settlement in the area dates from the Mesolithic...

, a large area outside Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, and renamed itself to Italia Wave

Italia Wave

The Italia Wave Love Festival is an annual music festival held in Italy. The first edition in 2007 was held from the 17th to the 22nd of July in Florence and Sesto Fiorentino, and the 2008, 2009 and 2010 editions in Livorno. In 2011 it is set to be held in Lecce.It mainly presents rock music,...

Love Festival 2007. Despite its new name and location, this is effectively the 21st edition of Arezzo Wave.