Bergamo, Piazza Duomo by night

A long summer of pop will celebrate Italian Capital of Culture 2023: hundreds of events in Bergamo and Brescia to fill the summer days and nights with life, music and colour.

“The Harlequin’s Cloak”, a theatre and participatory art festival by Bergamo’s Teatro Tascabile until 30 September, features international artists like Kaarina Kaikkonen and Vero Cendoya
The Centro Teatrale Bresciano marks the centenary of Italo Calvino’s birth with “The invisible cities. The future is a duty”, where 20 artists will perform from 27 June to 9 July in a visionary show.

Thousands of local artists will take part in Festa della Music in Bergamo from 21 June and Brescia from 24 June. Bergamo hosts “Lazzaretto Estate 2023”, fifteen evenings from 27 June to 30 July starring great artists such as Madame (7 July), Snarky Puppy (10 July), Pat Metheny (19 July), Francesca Michielin (28 July), Jethro Tull (28 July). The Cipiesse review will bring to Brescia Mr Rain (July 15), Coma Cose (July 24) and Dardast (July 26), Steve Hackett (6 July).

International artists will perform in Brescia’s Festival Jazz on the road (10-14 July): Jonathan Coel & Artchipel Orchestra; Dave Holland “New Quartet”; Bill Frisell “Four”; Serena Brancale Quartet. Also, the Sub Limen festival (from July 21 in both cities) offers 6 contemporary performances between electronic, pop and experimental music.

Art takes centre stage from 23 June in Bergamo at GAMeC with “Rachel Whiteread… And the animals were sold”, where the celebrated English artist examines relationships between present and past – and “Vivian Suter. Home”, the first exhibition by the Argentinian artist in an Italian museum. Meanwhile, Accademia Carrara is staging “Peaks of light. Naoki Ishikawa on the Bergamesque Alps”, displaying nineteenth-century paintings and contemporary photographs.

Hundreds of films by major contemporary directors and Italian and foreign productions will be screened in outdoor film festivals: at the “L’Eden d’Estate” from 9 June to 8 September in the Parco del Viridarium of Brescia’s Santa Giulia Museum; at the “Esterno Notte” from 15 June to 6 September in Bergamo’s Biblioteca Caversazzi.

For more details: https://bergamobrescia2023.it/