Sanremo 2024 will be 'the most popular festival ever'. And Amadeus invites tractors

Such an 'extended' festival you have probably never seen. The Sanremo that is preparing for the debut of its 74th edition, the fifth consecutive one under the artistic direction of Amadeus, is a widespread festival: this is true for thesongs in competition, which are 30 (never so many in 74 years of history) but also for the calendar of accompanying events and the locations involved. This was discussed at the press conference of the Festival returning to the roof of the Ariston, where it had been until 2020, before the Covid parenthesis.

'When you have an idea,' says Amadeus, 'no matter how strange or visionary it may seem, you need people who share and help you realise it. And that's what the people who work for Rai, for the City of Sanremo, have done,' the artistic director continues. 'This festival is a true celebration of all music and a tale of our country. A tale that in the round speaks of our country. To our country and to the world,' says Marcello Ciannamea, Rai's Prime Time entertainment director. "More than the previous Amaedus festivals. This is first of all because there is an after show involving Fiorello and Biggio'.

Speaking of the real country: a special focus this year is the tractor protest: 'I find it absolutely right,' the artistic director emphasised, 'sacrosanct, for the right to work and to protect one's job. But no one has contacted me and I have not contacted anyone. It would be good for them to come, you don't find a stage like this every day, I make an appeal for them to come. If they come I will let them come on stage."

There is no shortage of questions on Amadeus and Fiorello's guest appearance on 'Che Tempo che fa', on the evening of 4 February, live on Warner Bros Discovery, but the artistic director dribbles away any polemical cues: 'Every choice has been shared with Rai's managing director Roberto Sergio'. Fiorello, meanwhile, sends back to the sender any hypothesis that he will move on to hosting, after yet another co-host alongside Amadeus.

Sanremo's press conference opened with the traditional table of main sponsors, no small detail if we consider the record-breaking collection horizon towards which it is sailing. Rai Pubblicità CEO Gian Paolo Tagliavia made "a pre-consensus" and spoke of another festival that will leave its mark: "This year that widespread festival we were talking about a few years ago has really taken shape. The idea of the festival starting before Tuesday prevailed. This happens because the companies that invest here don't just come to do what used to be called advertising'.