Panel Festivals and green: sustainability in cultural events and live performances with FIAT – Festival of International Alternative Theatre of Podgorica, Kiril Mechalov / MOT – International Theater Festival of Skopje, Franco Masotti / Ravenna Festival, Marta Lovato / Santarcangelo Festival, Agata Tomšič and Davide Sacco / ErosAntEros, Emanuela Medeghini / Centro Europe Direct della Romagna, curated by Giulia Alonzo / Trovafestival and Oliviero Ponte di Pino / Ateatro.

Commitment to sustainability is now part of our everyday life. Culture and cultural events must also play their part. With this in mind, Festivals and Green, in collaboration with the Association TrovaFestival, aims to explore the relationship between cultural events, the environment and sustainability and analyze processes for making cultural festivals environmentally sustainable. The afternoon of dialogue is open to operators, artists and spectators to compare cross-sectional viewpoints and make synergic proposals.

Giulia Alonzo, PhD student in Sociology of Culture at the University of Bologna. She writes about theater on several online publications (“exibart,” “Doppiozero,” “ateatro.it”). She is the author of the books Dioniso e la nuvola. L’informazione e la critica teatrale in rete (FrancoAngeli, 2017), In giro per festival. Guida nomade agli eventi culturali (Altreconomia, 2022) both with Oliviero Ponte di Pino. She is president of the Cultural Association TrovaFestival, the portal that has been mapping Italian cultural festivals since 2017.

Oliviero Ponte di Pino has worked for over thirty years in publishing (Ubulibri, Rizzoli, Garzanti, of which he was editorial director from 2000 to 2012). He has written in newspapers and magazines, produced radio and television broadcasts for RAI, conceived festivals, curated exhibitions, and planned cultural and spectacular initiatives (Subway Letteratura, Maratona di Milano). He teaches Literature and philosophy of theater at Brera and hosts “Piazza Verdi” (Radio3 RAI). In 2001 he founded the website ateatro.it, since 2004 he curates Le Buone Pratiche del Teatro (with Mimma Gallina), since 2012 he curates the program of “BookCity Milano” (with Elena Puccinelli), in 2017 he founded the portal TrovaFestival (with Giulia Alonzo).

The Festival of International Alternative Theater (FIAT) has been successfully realized for almost four decades. Important characteristic of the festival is the promotion and encouragement of the cultural exchange, cooperation, and mobility of artists. Recognized as a fusion of different art forms, FIAT is, with its authentic program, one of the most important festivals in Southeast Europe.

Kiril Mechalov is Program Manager at Youth Cultural Center in Skopje, Macedonia. He works on promotion and presentation of cultural values. The center is the most important point of socializing, exchange of ideas, place for free expression of the youth. In addition to its own annual program, which includes more than 300 events (exhibitions, theater plays, promotions, workshops, concerts, debates, and film screenings), the YCC also works as a service to numerous NGO’s and individual artists in the field. As part of the program department in the YCC is behind the organization, planning and full realization of three international festivals and events – the International theater festival MOT, the European film festival CINEDAYS, as well as the new music festival – ZDRAVO MLADI.

Franco Masotti, after his studies in philosophy, piano and composition in Florence, began to work on American ‘New Music,’ particularly in its relationship with the visual arts and the use of new technologies. Together with his brother Roberto and Veniero Rizzardi, he organized the international review “‘”Sonorità Prospettiche. Suono/Ambiente/Immagine” (Rimini 1982). In 1982 he began a collaboration with the Aterforum festival in Ferrara. He won the Abbiati Prize for special projects for the retrospective-installation “Glenn Gould in video” (1991). He has collaborated as a music critic with numerous magazines. He curated, among others, the edition of Lettera ad uno sconosciuto by J. Cage and La mia musica by P. Glass for Edizioni Socrates (Rome), and numerous voices of twentieth-century and contemporary musical theater in the Dictionary of Opera published by Baldini&Castoldi. Since 1998 he has been artistic director, together with Cristina Mazzavillani Muti and Angelo Nicastro of Ravenna Festival, within which he has curated numerous special projects.

Marta Lovato is sustainability manager for Santarcangelo Festival. She has been working in the world of contemporary performing arts since 2016, starting to collaborate with Motus. She has always been interested in eco-sustainability, after graduating with a master’s degree in International Cooperation for Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage she decided to dedicate herself to sustainability at 360° as described in the 2030 Agenda.

ErosAntEros was born from the union of Davide Sacco, stage director, and Agata Tomšič, actress and dramaturg, in January 2010. Their artistic research brings forward an engaged theater that does not give up the aesthetic value of form, in a strong relation whit the history, the present and the places in which is created, with the aim to connect theater to life and make the imagination a weapon to transform reality. Over the years they have been produced and supported by important theatrical institutions, such as ERT-Emilia Romagna Teatro / Teatro Nazionale, TNL-Théâtre National du Luxembourg, Ravenna Festival, Campania Teatro Festival, Teatro della Toscana, TPE-Teatro Piemonte Europa, Teatro della Tosse. Since 2018 they are directing POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna, programming artists of international importance and implementing participatory projects that involve citizens.

Centro Europe Direct della Romagna, hosted by the U.O. European Policies of the Municipality of Ravenna, deals with communication and information on European Union issues and acts as an intermediary between the European Union and citizens at the local level. It is part of an information network coordinated by the European Commission’s Direction for Communication.