Campovolo remains without music: after the stop at the festival with Kanye West and Travis Scott, Ligabue attacks and Reggio Emilia ends up in chaos
One thing was clearly understood: for the «Reggio System» it is better to continue to focus on the hospitality business, rather than venturing into the much more complicated business of large events.
In less than four years, in fact, the Tricolore city seems to have lost the Campovolo bet (the mega concert structure that was supposed to transform it into the capital of music), and the cancellation of the Hellwatt festival scheduled for next July, which promised to bring stars like Kanye West and the rapper Travis Scottcertifies the debacle.
Of course, formally he was the prefect of the city, Salvatore Angierito stop the performances of the two artists for safety reasons (West is known for his extremist and anti-Semitic positions), but to many the prefectural ordinance appeared, more than anything else, as a godsend that allowed the various subsidiaries, cooperatives and companies involved in the organization, but above all to the mayor Marco Massari and to the head of cabinet of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Luca Vecchiwho had strongly supported the event, to get out of the dead end they had gotten themselves into.
«I always wanted to stay out of it so as not to associate my name with this affair. But like every citizen of Reggio I wonder how it is possible and I feel enormous sadness”, he declared on the matter Luciano Ligabuedistancing himself from a creature (Campovolo, precisely) that he himself, with the inaugural concert in 2022, contributed to creating and which represented in the imagination of his comrades the ability of the left to do business with mass music.
But let’s go in order: Campovolo was originally a green area owned by Enac, then given in concession to the Reggio Emilia Airport spa, controlled “in house” by local public bodies including the Municipality of Reggio, the Province and others and used for years for the local and national editions of the Festa dell’Unità.
Then, between 2017 and 2020, thanks to public funding of 1.7 million euros and over 11 million of European funds (managed by the Emilia-Romagna Region), what today bears the name of Rcf Arena was built in the area, «the largest venue in Europe», permanently equipped and capable of hosting over 100,000 standing people.
The construction and management of the giant were entrusted to C.Volo spa, which has a concession for them until 2035, a company founded with very modest capital for the scope of the mission (just 100,000 euros) and owned by important and well-known cooperative and entrepreneurial entities in the area, as well as by Rcf, the main sponsor of the space.
After the 2022 inauguration, however, the Reggio Emilia location never seems to have shone with results: a concert or two a year which, according to rumors, made the accounts break even and little more. Until last February, when with great fanfare the mayor of Reggio Emilia, Massarialong with its predecessor Old and to the representatives of C.Volo spa they presented the event that was supposed to mark the turning point and transform Reggio Emilia into the international capital of electronic rap sounds of the moment for a month.
But if the presentation already sounded bad West as a leading artist in a city with a partisan tradition and, even more so, the choice of an artistic director like Victor Yari Milani – born in ’84, born in Spain and owner of two companies active in the party and wedding sector – certainly knowledgeable but little known in the world (except for having organized the reception at the wedding party of Putin), when, in the month of May, the first rumors began to circulate of an organization still at sea and of ticket sales that seemed to be languishing, many already imagined that something would go wrong.
From then to now the steps have followed one another quickly and not even one has gone in the right direction: from the inevitable criticism from Anpi and the unions for the choice of artists, to the sudden dismissal of Milanifrom the rebound of responsibilities to the ongoing change of the name of the festival (hastily transformed into «Pulse of Gaia»), up to the dozens of questions put forward by the city councilors of Fratelli d’Italia and Lista civica for Reggio, which have still remained unanswered.
A few days ago, the order from the prefect of Reggio came to remove the chestnuts from the fire, banning the two main concerts scheduled for early July, on a bill which, at least initially, had about ten dates scheduled. And the opportunity was good to cancel the entire festival, without any of those who had advertised the event taking responsibility for what happened. «The Reggio Emilia Democratic Party continues to govern the city, making a fool of itself which is causing enormous damage to the image, credibility and attractiveness of Reggio Emilia. After the sensational flop of the Fashion Center and the affair of the Tricolore awarded to Francesca Albanesetoday we witness the disaster of the Campovolo festival. Municipality and C.Volo described themselves as impeccable, claiming that everything was ready and that the only person responsible was the prefect. A reconstruction that borders on the ridiculous. When successes have to be credited, everyone gets on the bandwagon, when a failure of international proportions arrives, responsibilities disappear and a scapegoat is sought”, he commented Cristian Paglialongagroup leader of the Brothers of Italy in the city’s municipal council.
