The fifth edition of Affabulazione - Espressioni della Napoli policentrica, a theatre, music and dance festival promoted by the Municipality of Naples with financial support from the National Fund for the Performing Arts of the General Directorate for Performing Arts of the Ministry of Culture, gets underway on Sunday 20 September from Pianura, with fourteen projects involving six Municipalities in a free-of-charge programme. Until 10 December, the spotlight falls on 14 projects selected through a public call, for a total of 130 live performance events and 242 workshops, meetings and seminars aimed at creating connections between and with the city's outlying areas. The main innovation is the thematic approach. Each participating Municipality has been paired with specific literary and musical genres, with six major narrative districts. Municipality 4 (Poggioreale and the Industrial Zone) is paired with noir/thriller and blues and soul music, while Municipality 6 (Ponticelli, San Giovanni, Barra) is linked to comedy and humour and funky and jazz music. Municipality 7 (Secondigliano, Miano, San Pietro a Patierno) will follow the historical/biographical strand and classical music. Municipality 8 (Scampia, Piscinola, Marianella, Chiaiano) will focus on adventure/epic genres and rock music, Municipality 9 (Soccavo, Pianura) on children's/coming-of-age literature and hip hop, ska and reggae music. Finally, Municipality 10 (Fuorigrotta, Bagnoli) is paired with fantasy and science fiction themes and electronic music. Part of the initiative, funded with approximately 900,000 euros, also involves the use of venues outside traditional live performance circuits, such as parks, churches, schools, libraries and multipurpose centres. Numerous artists are taking part in the festival, including, among others, Valerio Aprea, Andrea Bacchetti, Fabrizio Bosso, Cloris Brosca, Paolo Caiazzo, Lino D'Angiò, Maurizio de Giovanni, Stefano Di Battista, Francesco Di Leva, Cristina Donadio, Roberta Gambarini, Javier Girotto, Lello Giulivo, Biagio Izzo, Peppe Lanzetta, Dado Moroni, Adriano Pantaleo, Patrizio Rispo, Gino Rivieccio, Daniele Sepe and Marco Zurzolo.
Sergio Locoratolo, coordinator of cultural policies for the Municipality of Naples, notes: "Over the four previous editions, the festival has recorded steady growth, establishing itself as a cultural model for the territory: with approximately 4.6 million euros invested, 83 projects supported and more than a thousand activities carried out between 2022 and 2025, we have engaged a network of over 230 organisations, including associations, cooperatives and other sector players, not only at local level."
"Affabulazione," observes Ferdinando Tozzi, the Mayor of Naples' advisor for the music industry and audiovisual sector, "demonstrates how cultural investment produces a real cascading effect across the territory."
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