EVENTS September, the Month of Culture

By Ada Treves

September, in Italy, means culture festivals. After the Festivaletteratura in Mantua, as usual, opened the month (this year with Mantua selected as the Italian Capital for Culture 2016), last week, it was time for Pordenonelegge, “la festa del libro con gli autori” (the book party, with the authors). Even if the location – the extreme North East of Italy – could not seem ideal for such an event, Pordenonelegge has been able to gain the interest and the participation of an amazingly big number of people over the years. The town turned again yellow – the official color of the festival – and thousands of visitors took advantage of more than three hundred events that were held over the course of five exciting days, with every space filled to the top of its capacity.

Pagine Ebraiche, the Italian Jewish magazine, was present in Pordenone with hundreds of copies distributed in the Info-Points by the organization. Its presence is considered “traditional” by the “angels” the volunteers that have had great part in the success of a festival. Pordenonelegge has proved again able to grow, with more events and a bigger public, and to become more interesting, more relevant, and more attractive. During the same days, philosophy was at the center of another interesting festival that takes place in Modena, Carpi and Sassuolo, the Festivalfilosofia. Furthermore, the “new journalism” festival was held in Spotorno, while in Bellinzona, (Switzerland), Babel devoted its attention to translation and translators, in an edition focused on “the greater London, capital of a Disunited Kingdom, epicenter of a fragmented Europe and of a world in transit.”

And this is just the beginning of the month…