For the past 25 years or so Keane has grown a beard during the winter and shaved it off each Easter.
According to him, it is a tradition to celebrate the rebirth or the renewal once the spring arrives.
Strangely enough what was essentially a private event has over the years become almost a public event with people stopping him in the piazza and remarking that Easter had arrived and the beard still evident on his face and what did he intend doing about it ?
With the collaboration of the group The JoZenFeel, it was decided to make an extremely public event and so the first Traditional Spring Cleaning Festa was organised at the “unofficial cultural centre of Barga” -- The Da Aristo bar in Piazza Salvo Salvi.
Professional barbers -- Andrea Cottone from the Barberi BisB in Lucca, Simone Tamagnini from I Fabbrici at Ghivizzano and Gabrio Tognarelli from the Diego Hair studio at Castelnuovo were invited to Piazza Salvo Salvi in Barga Vecchia….. PLUS ….. a figure running under the name of “The Barber of Saville” , who turned out to be the musician Andrea Guzzoletti armed with an electric shaver.
They arrived to find ten extremely hairy men patiently seated in the piazza, listening to the music of the JoZenFeel and waiting to be shorn and shaved.
Images by Stefano Tommasi -- his site can be seen here : Stefano Tommasi.com