Ferrara Buskers Festival - Music in the city

Every year, in the last week of August, the streets and squares of Ferrara's historic centre come alive thanks to hundreds of street performers from all over the world. As you stroll around, you will be captured by the rhythms, laughter, applause and cheerful chatter of people who excitedly move from one street to another. All this is the Ferrara Buskers Festival, an essential event for people from Ferrara and elsewhere, and the flagship of music and street art in Italy and the world.

Ferrara Buskers Festival - the histoy

A revolutionary idea that of Stefano Bottoni who, in 1987 in Paris, was fascinated by the performance of some street artists in front of the Centre Pompidou. And so it was that he began to visualise in his mind the image of the historic centre of Ferrara, with its evocative mediaeval streets and elegant Renaissance views, filled with artists and the public.

The Ferrara Buskers Festival came to life in August 1988. But it was the second edition that indelibly marked the festival: on the hot afternoon of 22 August 1989, Lucio Dalla, together with guitarist Jimmy Villotti and the Blues Jeans Trio, performed as an ordinary busker playing his clarinet in Piazzetta San Michele.

Over the following decades, the Ferrara Buskers Festival grew exponentially, becoming the 'forbidden dream' of street artists from all over the world and bringing thousands of onlookers and fans to the city, as well as artists such as Gianna Nannini and Omar Pedrini.

The 'Buskers Week' is an intense and overwhelming experience that will make you dance, sing and move. In case you haven't already guessed it, we'll tell you: we can't really tell you about the Ferrara Buskers Festival, you have to come and experience it... in full!

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Organised by Associazione Ferrara Buskers Festival.

Ph. organization's website and Pier Luigi Benini