Operating in the field of digital humanities, we often collaborate with professors, researchers, and university students. In this case, we responded to questions from Anna Rizzuti, a young cultural sector professional and Art History undergraduate who is addressing the theme of the Festino in her thesis.
We would therefore like to inaugurate this space for reflection on our website with the answers we provided to her. We thought that her excellent questions might reflect the curiosity of a wide audience of people passionate about the enhancement of cultural heritage, as well as professionals in the field, and help clarify how Odd Agency approached the production of the last two Festini and, more generally, the design of public ceremonies.
What exactly was ODD Agency’s role in the most recent Festini of Santa Rosalia? Could you describe how you intervened in the project and which areas you oversaw directly?
We co-produced the 400th Festino with Balich Wonder Studio and co-produced the 400th+1 edition with Terzo Millennio Progetti Artistici, for which we also oversaw the Artistic Direction.
When and how did the collaboration between ODD Agency and the organizers of the Festino begin, and what objectives were you assigned?
We had already worked as content producers in previous editions. For the 400th Festino, we approached Balich Wonder Studio, one of the leading international event production groups with whom we had previously collaborated on events outside Sicily, to see if they were interested in presenting a creative proposal to the Municipality of Palermo.
They did so, and their proposal was accepted by the Municipality. We then co-produced the entire Festino with BWS, participating in and overseeing every aspect—from the production of the three floats to managing artists and crews, from technical management to content production.
For the 400th+1 edition, in addition to all the production aspects, we also conceived and oversaw the artistic direction of the entire event. In this case, however, the production of the main float was entrusted by the Municipality to another company, and thus fell outside our responsibilities. Nevertheless, not wanting to rest on our laurels, we designed and created La Nave dei Folli, the theater-float that accompanied the triumphal float along the route.
Which iconographic or symbolic elements of the Festino did you choose to highlight in the project? Did you follow a specific narrative or a “conceptual line” during the development of the visual and communication materials?
For the 401st+1 Festino, we chose to focus on two conceptual pairs: Life and Death and Ephemeral and Eternal, linking each to one of the traditional “stages” of the Festino. We explored the dialogue between the city—represented by the Carro dei Folli and voiced by Simona Malato—and the personifications of these themes.
This approach stems from a deliberate reflection: our aim was not merely to recount the life and miracles of Santa Rosalia, but to highlight themes that emerge strongly from four hundred years of Festino history, seeking the universal elements within a story that is deeply local and tied to Palermo’s identity and its emblematic symbol.
Each stage, and thus each theme, was also visually linked to one or more works of Palermo’s artistic heritage: the Triumph of Death at Palazzo Reale, the Tree of Life in the Cathedral (where we collaborated with a PhD student from the Department of Architecture), the tradition of ephemeral architecture at the Quattro Canti, and La notte dell’Ascensione by Kiyohara Tama at Porta Felice.
In addition to the traditional stages, we introduced a “contemporary” and experimental stage at Palazzo Riso, where the art of Francesco De Grandi interacted with the music of Giulia Tagliavia.
What strategies and considerations do you believe are essential for communicating the Festino of Santa Rosalia in the contemporary cultural landscape, without losing its connection to tradition?
The Festino has enormous communicative and experiential potential. We realized this, for example, while collaborating with BWS. Many professionals from around the world who came to organize the 400th Festino—despite their extensive experience in organizing large-scale ceremonies such as the Olympics or Mexico’s bicentennial—were amazed by the popular participation and emotional intensity of the Festino. This is a value that is not difficult to convey externally, as evidenced by our wins at the BEA Awards in both 2024 and 2025.
At the Festino, popular festivity and grand spectacular event coexist—a feature that is increasingly rare in celebrations worldwide. I will address the connection to tradition in more detail shortly.
What feedback have you received from the community, institutions, or the public, and how do you evaluate the impact of your project on the perception of the festival?
When discussing the perception of the Festino, a preliminary remark is necessary. The Festino has always been—and even more so since the rise of social media—a kind of local Sanremo. This is actually one of its strengths: it becomes an object of discussion within the city, where everyone feels compelled to explain why they attended or chose not to, what they loved and what they didn’t, what was better or worse than previous editions.
Its nature as a civic festival also exposes it—rightly, in my opinion—to political judgments, which often go beyond the artistic performances and technical solutions on display. The mayor’s ceremonial moment at the Quattro Canti, for example, can become the focal point of next-day news coverage, regardless of the rest of the Festino.
It is therefore difficult to identify a single, unified popular sentiment; however, interviews with attendees conducted by local and national television indicate that the overall judgment of the 400th+1 Festino was positive.
Certainly, both the 400th and 400th+1 editions have received international recognition for the quality of the event, evidenced by their wins at the Best Event Awards in the Cultural Event and Celebration categories.
This achievement is even more significant when considering that the competitors in these categories included the Jubilee, Grace for the World (an event held in the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of the Pope, featuring Andrea Bocelli, Pharrell Williams, and a performance with over 3,000 drones), the Italian Pavilion events at Expo Osaka, and the worldwide tour of the Amerigo Vespucci—all events with budgets and scale far beyond those of the Festino.
In this sense, I believe Odd Agency’s impact on the Festino has been significant—and, if I may say, decisive. Not to mention that, for the first time in decades, we successfully managed to have the float pass through Porta Felice precisely at midnight.
Have you collected any data (e.g., attendance, media coverage) that demonstrate the effectiveness of your strategy?
The media coverage was definitely higher than in the past. The 400th Festino was featured in a Real Time special, and both editions received coverage not only locally but also nationally (TG1, TG5, live broadcast on digital terrestrial TV).
The 400th edition saw a record audience that put security measures to the test, with law enforcement estimating a presence of over 400,000 people.
In 2025, in the days leading up to the night of July 14, over 80% of the city’s hotel capacity was occupied, with average daily tourist spending around €128, reaching peaks above €150 in the high-end segment. This confirms the principle that for every euro spent on events, between three and six euros return in terms of economic impact.
How did your project aim to engage the local community? Were there actions or moments specifically designed to encourage participation?
The Festino faces a major challenge in accessibility. It is a massive live performance staged in spaces that were neither designed for live shows nor for the enormous crowds that fill the streets every July 14.
Since the 1990s, when the increasing spectacle of the Festino caused an exponential rise in audience numbers, attempts have been made to compensate by introducing aerial and acrobatic performances.
However, this has become increasingly difficult due to stricter public event regulations following the tragic incidents at Piazza San Carlo in Turin in 2017 and at Corinaldo.
As a result, especially in recent years, the festival often became reduced to mere acting, choreography, or singing, without the technical support needed for all Palermitans to fully experience it. For many, the Festino is the only annual moment of cultural engagement, and in recent years, this experience was often diminished by the unintelligibility and invisibility of text, words, and performers.
From the very beginning, our design was guided by the principle of making the performance accessible to everyone. We did this by imagining a theater-float that elevated actors and performers, allowing the audience along the entire route to see them clearly.
Most importantly, we implemented a form of live mixed reality, integrating Vincenzo Pirrotta and Isabella Ragonese into the projection mapping and having them interact with Simona Malato on the theater-float.
This, together with meticulous audio system design, allowed everyone to experience the words, gestures, expressions, and music—a fact confirmed by the audience’s reactions during crucial moments of the two dialogues, including three standing ovations in the Cathedral.
At the same time, it strengthened the storytelling concept by dematerializing the conceptual characters (Life and Death) in their dialogue with the tangible city, exposing the blend of digital and analog elements that has always been a signature of Odd Agency.
Which communication channels did you prioritize (social media, events, traditional media, etc.) and why?
The official communication of the Festino remains under the responsibility of the Municipality of Palermo and is not part of the remit related to artistic direction and production. We therefore collaborated with the Municipality on all communication strategies, but we were not the primary creators of them.
Is there anything you weren’t able to do but would have liked to experiment with? What were the biggest challenges you encountered during the project?
Of course, there were things we would have liked to experiment with. The main challenge, as with any large-scale event, is aligning artistic vision with production constraints. A small team carries the imaginative effort required to build a grand spectacle, while also needing to fit those visions within the tight boundaries of a strict business plan.
A second challenge comes from the Festino’s long-standing traditions. Many local Palermo professionals, at every level, have worked on multiple editions of the Festino. This often fosters a tendency to stick to routine, and the “it’s always been done this way” mindset can become a barrier to innovation.
Fortunately, the participation of an international partner like BWS in the 400th Festino, our natural inclination to integrate innovative elements into the design, and the decision to involve young yet internationally experienced members of the city’s cultural industry for the 401st+1 edition allowed us to overcome this apparent barrier.
Finally, more time for production would certainly help, avoiding late assignments (although in recent years planning has started to improve), and increasing dialogue with authorities (Police Headquarters, Prefecture) responsible for public safety would allow for better compromises between the needs of the performance and proper security measures.
10. Despite the great success of recent editions of the Festino, there have been criticisms from the community related to tradition, with some lamenting excessive spectacularization and a perceived loss of the festival’s sacred dimension. How did you address these concerns? In your opinion, can the use of new media and technological innovations over time amplify this risk and end up replacing the “traditional” aspects of the Festino? How can this be avoided without giving up on innovation?
There is a widespread misunderstanding about the Festino and, more generally, about the concept of tradition. The traditional and fundamental aspects of the Festino are essentially these:
The Festino is first and foremost a civic celebration. Its religious and strictly devotional aspect has always been reserved for the procession of the Vara, which takes place the following day (July 15).
The Festino is a Baroque festival. Its very reason for being is exaggeration. Every edition must be richer and more extravagant than the previous one. Each stage should build toward a crescendo culminating in a grand finale, long represented by fireworks.
The Festino has been a training ground for centuries where artists, architects, and directors test their skills. What today we would call Palermo’s cultural industry (and beyond) has been shaped through these events. From Mariano Smiriglio to Paolo Amato, Nicolò and Andrea Palma, Giuseppe Pitrè, Rodo Santoro, Pino Caruso, and all artistic directors and production companies from the 1990s onwards—each has in some way reinvented tradition, even when ostensibly returning to it.
Technology has traditionally been an integral part of the Festino. Ephemeral apparatuses, stage machinery, floating pyrotechnic fountains, and acrobatic rigging have been constants over 400 years. Every era has deployed the most advanced technology of its time to amaze the audience in keeping with the festival’s strongly Baroque and spectacular character.
Many elements we consider “traditional”—the stages, the route, the fireworks, the nighttime procession—are actually relatively recent inventions, mostly dating from the 1990s.
Not betraying the Festino therefore means following this tradition: respecting its role as the city’s festival, avoiding minimalism, engaging the best artistic and cultural talent, aiming to astonish with new solutions, experimenting with new forms of storytelling, following the canon when it serves the narrative, and innovating when the narrative demands it. This is precisely what we sought to do in the 400th+1 edition of the Festino.
If you could represent the Festino with a single symbol, which one would you choose and why?
he best way to represent the Festino with a single image or symbol is always an aerial shot of the Quattro Canti during the official ceremony. The Carro, the lights, the spectacular backdrops, and—most importantly—the incredible density of the crowd convey more than a thousand words the extraordinary bond between the people of Palermo, their saint, their city, and their festival.
