“After an initial moment of bewilderment and daze,” stresses artistic director Cesare Liaci, “we decided to start making music again: first on the web and now, finally, live. The experience of #Seiacasa has been useful not only to hear and play fresh proposals and old friends of the festival but also to deepen and dissect one of the main questions of this period. What will happen to live performances? How will we organize concerts following the anticovid rules? So,” Liaci continues, “playing with “Where is my mind?” title of a iconic Pixies’ song, we decided to title this edition of the festival #whereismylive.”.
After tackling the lockdown with the web format #SeiACasa, the Sei festival – realized with the support of Fus – Single Fund for the Performing Arts of Mibac and Regione Puglia and Teatro Pubblico Pugliese in the “Programmazione Custodiamo la cultura in Puglia”, in collaboration with Ferrovie SudEst (official carrier), Vestas Travel and Vini Garofano, and with media partners Radio Wau, RadioSonar, RKO, Alpaca Music, Le Rane and Sei tutto l’indie di cui ho bisogno – thus offered a rich summer season that also included book presentations and meetings.
From July 18th to August 22nd in the Castello Volante of Corigliano d’Otranto kicked off the fourteenth edition of the SEI festival, conceived, produced and promoted by Coolclub, under the artistic direction of Cesare Liaci. The festival kicked off in July with Inude, Les contes d’Alfonsina and Giardini di Mirò, continuing in August with Beatrice Antolini, Dente, Vinicio Capossela, Napoli Segreta, Giovanni Truppi, Erica Mou, Lucio Corsi, Julielle, lefrasiincompiutiediElena, Bartolini and La Malasorte. Instead, the long-awaited live performance by Pixies scheduled in Lecce for August 29th and promoted by Sei Festival in collaboration with Dna Concerti and Locus Festival has been postponed for a year. The U.S. band will perform on August 16th, 2022, also in the Salento capital.
The Castello Volante program was completed, moreover, by two appointments of SEIYoung, a review dedicated to young bands and artists Under 35, also promoted by CoolClub, in collaboration with the Sei festival, with the support of Mibact and Siae, as part of the “Per chi crea” program, which hosted La Municipàl and Motta.
Thanks to support from the Puglia Sounds Live 2020/2021 Programmingof the Puglia Region (FSC 2014/2020 Patto per la Puglia – Investiamo nel vostro futuro), the festival was held in the Castello Volante of Corigliano d’Otranto in September as well. Friday 4 saw the official presentation of Albanian cellist Redi Hasa‘s first solo album. “The Stolen Cello” (Decca Records). On Friday, September 11th, the Sei Festival hosted “Cosa sono le nuvole” with singer Rachele Andrioli and accordionist Rocco Nigro. Finally, on Tuesday, September 5th, Salento trumpeter Cesare Dell’Anna and Albanian pianist Ekland Hasa performed a complex and refined repertoire investigating the border musics of the two countries facing each other on the Adriatic Sea.