On Thursday, August 17th, and Saturday, August 19th, Salento was traversed from the Ionian to the Adriatic, from Gallipoli to Otranto, by the first edition of the alternative music festival Coast to Coast, organized by Sold Out, Coolclub and Alta Fedeltà Produzioni, in which Sud Est Indipendenteis included, in its first public appearance. An event that brought just a few steps from the two seas that bathe Salento, in the middle of August, the best of Italian rock music (and more). A peaceful invasion, the conquest of Salento by other musics. 
On August 17th, the port area of Gallipoli hosted the final stage of the Hula hoop festival. On stage Caparezza, Punkreas, Folkabbestia, Villa Ada, Krikka reggae. August 19 is the turn of SEI, which offers in the moat of Otranto Castle a program dedicated to pop and rock lovers with performances by Superpartner, Lotus, Studio Davoli, Bugo and Baustelle. 
The ability of Southeast Independent to look forward to the future of Italian music is evident from the start. Baustelle, in fact, would soon depopulated, becoming a cult band in the Italian rock scene. In 2006 they had appeared on the Otranto stage with their album La malavita and, on the strength of their success at Festivalbar, they had confirmed their ability to mix excellent melodies with engaging and evocative settings live. At the conclusion of their concert Francesco Bianconi invited Bugo onstage for a crackling and enthralling duet. 
Bugo loves noise, punk, metal, he also likes rap, but he remains someone who writes and sings his own songs, raw and rough tunes and the result is funny stories about everyday life, brilliant irony and a bit of madness, which the main seasoning of his live performances. The singer-songwriter brought to Sud Est Independente his album “Sguardo contemporaneo”. But SEI naturally has a special passion for local bands, and the first edition of the festival also saw Studio Davoli, Lotus and Superpartner perform. 
Studio Davoli (from whose members would later be born Il Genio and Girl with the gun, two other rather interesting chapters in our home music) took the stage as one of the bands most incensed by Italian rock critics that year with their vintage, psychedelic, lounge but also experimentally electronic atmospheres. All seasoned by Matilde’s voice and Gianluca’s keyboards. Lotus, on the other hand, was the project of Amerigo Verardi, a historical figure in the Italian underground of the last fifteen years. His recording beginnings are linked to a cult band, Allison Run. This first project was followed by a solo experience, then the Lula with whom he recorded two slendid records, Da dentro and Lula.[:en]The first edition of #SEIfestival – August 17/19 @ Gallipoli and Otranto (Lecce). On stage Caparezza, Punkreas, Folkabbestia, Villa Ada, Krikka reggae, Superpartner, Lotus, Studio Davoli, Bugo and Baustelle.
Since its beginning in 2006, the SEI has declared its vocation to choose heterogeneous groups and projects, to transform itself every time expanding the horizon of its proposals to offer to its audience a broad and varied overview of the music looking for different genres, from punk to singer-songwriter, from rock to ska, from folk to the upbeat rhythms. In the different locations of Salento that have hosted the festival, took turns artists like Kings of Convenience, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cat Power, Baustelle, Gogol Bordello, Bugo, Skatalites, Daniele Silvestri, Verdena, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Vallanzaska, Teatro degli Orrori, One Dimensional Man, Russell Leetch, Is Tropical, Populous, Giuda, Fast Animals and Slow Kids, Mannarino, Avion Travel, Negrita, Calibro 35, Brunori Sas, Amor Fou, Lombroso, Dellera and many other Italian and Apulian realities such as Crifiu, Mascarimirì, Mery Fiore, Sofia Brunetta, La Gente, Una.