Two weeks of art, music, food and festas started tonight

The annual festa season in Barga Vecchia kicked off this evening with the streets full of people enjoying the sights and sounds of art, music and food. An interesting exhibition just as you come into the castle entrance at Porta Reale from Nicola Salotti who this year has brought out not just his paintings but some very nice etchings and prints as well.

Further down, in the Galleria Comunale, two brothers from Lucca, Lisandro and Roberto Rota have a joint exhibition of their work which is showing until the end of the month. Some wry humour in there from Lisandro should make you smile.



The barga band were also in the streets this evening playing traditional pieces and then they could be found at Aristodemo's for a relaxing jam session amongst the hanging salami and stacked cheese



By complete constrast at the other end of the steets there was an entirely different set of cultural values being played out: glitter and henna tattoo's were doing a roaring trade.



The evening was brought to a climax in the main Piazza Angelio by the first of many groups to take the stage over the next 15 days, the eclectic art band Solco Rufiano. One again, no strangers to Barga as they have been playing to enthusiastic audiences at the Barga Jazz Club during the winter.



P.S One of the newer "cultural events" that has been gradually building up over the past couple of years is that of groups of young boys who dress up in the worst taste possible and wander around in the dark trying to frighten as many people as they can find. They only come out when there are festas in the city and always for some bizarre reason known only to them, underpants form an integral part of their disguise.