Assoconcerti: 'Italy needs more spaces for live music'

While the big Italian live music season heats up its engines - with Vasco Rossi ready to inaugurate his tour on 27 May from Bibione - the sector faces the summer of 2025 in good health, but with its historical fragilities still all on the table. "Our sector,' says Bruno Sconocchia, president of Assoconcerti (the association of live music organisers and producers), 'is always underestimated, and the economic, social and cultural importance of the work we do is not fully grasped.

Sconocchia lines up the numbers, taken from Siae reports. In 2023, pop, rock and light music concerts in Italy exceeded 36,000 events, totalling 23.7 million spectators and almost €894 million in box office takings. "These are exceptional numbers that doubled the results of 2019, and in 2025 we expect them to grow again." A ride, but on a narrow track: 'Almost 50 per cent of the concerts are concentrated in June and July alone. In detail, 19% in June and 30% in July. And all this because of the absence of suitable spaces during the rest of the year. July ends and we start preparing the fields for football again'.

Another key statistic: 55% of concerts are held in the North (29% in the North-West, 26% in the North-East), while the Centre and the South share just 38%, with the islands stopping at a paltry 7%. "Christ did not stop at Eboli, but we even stop in Rome," says Sconocchia with bitter irony. "In the South there is a complete lack of adequate spaces for winter shows. In the whole of Italy, only Milan, Bologna and Turin have indoor facilities with 15,000 seats. In Rome the maximum is the Palazzo dello Sport with 7,500. And then that's it. Naples, Catania, Palermo, Reggio Calabria: emptiness'.

Hence 'our strong appeal to the government and local administrations,' Sconocchia urges, 'because we need truly multifunctional spaces. Places where sport and entertainment coexist. We need easier access to credit, perhaps with the support of the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo'. Alongside this, however, underlines the Assoconcerti president, 'there is the big issue of the Entertainment Code, which is still at a standstill despite promises. We had proposed that it should contain a funding plan, including tax credit, dedicated to the construction, renovation and acoustic and energy adaptation of new spaces for live entertainment'. A model? The world of cinema, which already benefits from structural forms of support. 'We ask that theatres and concert spaces also receive the same attention, because you cannot build an industry with sand under your feet'.

For Sconocchia, however, another aspect must be emphasised. Next to the big names - Zucchero, Mengoni, Cremonini, Green Day, Coldplay, up to the Lucca Summer Festival and Firenze Rocks - there are thousands of medium-small shows that struggle. "About 5 per cent of the events produce 30 per cent of the takings. We also need to support those who work in theatres, clubs, and arenas with up to 5,000 people. We are also proposing a tax credit for them, to deduct part of the expenses incurred,' explains the president of an Assoconcerti that yesterday presented a short film - directed by Anna Foglietta - in collaboration with the 'Una Nessuna Centomila' Foundation against violence against women, which will be screened before every big concert in the summer of 2025.