IndieRocket Festival
From September 20th to 22nd, 2024, inside the Padiglione Becci in Pescara, with a Sunday edition at Pollinaria with its Teatro del Grano in the countryside of Civitella Casanova, the IndieRocket Festival will take place. Three days of music, culture, and experimentation, for a festival that has established itself as one of the most important and recognized events in Italy dedicated to international independent music, a beacon for all those seeking new sonic experiences. We had a chat with Paolo Visci and Gianluca Gozzi, the artistic directors of the festival, to learn a bit more.
via IG @indierocketfestival
Paolo Visci: “The IndieRocket Festival has been taking place in Pescara for 21 years, back when 'indie' wasn't a cuss word and represented our cultural and artistic universe. When internationally it simply meant 'independent': from the music industry, from major mainstream events, etc. We are a group of people who are no longer young but have lived through the ‘90s and all the musical subcultures from then to today. This is why over the years the lineup has changed a lot, simply because we have changed with the festival, never remaining stuck on ourselves, and this has made IndieRocket one of the most anticipated, beloved, and long-standing events in Abruzzo. This year we decided to introduce a new concept, 'Aquæ - Æquinox'. Aquæ to identify the drift of music towards electronic sounds, highlighting the Festival’s ongoing commitment to artistic exploration and experimentation. A concept that is also connected to the choice of the Padiglione Becci, the exhibition space of the Chamber of Commerce inside the Marina di Pescara’s tourist port, adjacent to the former Cofa spaces, a tribute to the city's strong connection to the sea. Æquinox, on the other hand, celebrates the autumn equinox, in the bucolic setting of Pollinaria, a farm in Civitella Casanova, which we have chosen for a daytime event, on the beautiful Aprutine hills between Loreto and Penne, at the foot of the Gran Sasso. A final party immersed in nature, promising unforgettable emotions with many surprises to beautifully conclude this special edition”.
IndieRocket Festival is clearly synonymous with sonic experimentation and constant exploration. The direction combines personal taste with deep knowledge of the music market to create one of the most sought-after lineups in Italy.
Paolo Visci: “Thank you so much for calling it the most sought-after lineup in Italy; for us, that’s a wonderful compliment! We can’t reveal all the trade secrets, but I can tell you that this has been our daily bread for 30 years. Our only limitation is the budget we’re able to 'risk'. If we had more resources, we could really do something spectacular. Joking aside, this year I invited Gianluca Gozzi, former artistic director of TOdays and a cultural agitator from Turin, to co-curate the festival with me. I needed someone to lean on to push me toward new territories, and I wanted to do it with a friend by my side. How and where did we discover Yousuke Yukimatsu? It seems he’s the best DJ in the world! We just had to invite him (ed: laughs)”.
Bringing Föllakzoid and Domingæ is a statement of intent, as they go beyond the traditional structures of music. The Festival is committed to communities, using music as a universal language and a means of unity.
Paolo Visci: “IndieRocket has always been an inclusive festival, or rather one that represents itself. We've never claimed to fight against anything; we simply showcase who we are and what we love, without fear and without censorship. We’ve been following Föllakzoid since their debut on Sacred Bones, and we welcomed their latest work with great enthusiasm, especially since we also decided to undergo a kind of metamorphosis for this edition in favor of contemporary electronic trends. Their shift from psychedelia to krautrock and techno played with analog instruments was simply perfect for this year's edition of the festival. We hope that, as always, music can unite rather than divide”.
The festival lineup embraces global diversity, from Japan to Egypt, all the way to Rome and London. The journey to bring all these realities together and create this human capital is certainly filled with obstacles, but despite this, IndieRocket manages to craft its own unique common thread.
Gianluca Gozzi: “This year’s lineup comes from the desire to create not just a simple end-of-summer city festival or a series of events, but a unique environment where people can meet and connect with others outside of the usual circles.
When you organize an event like a festival, as an organizer, there are three ways to do it:
1) Do what we like,
2) Do something that generates artistic and social tensions,
3) Do what works.
We’re not very interested in the third option, and it’s never been our priority anyway. The first two, however, definitely are. In Italy, people try to combine the second and third, but they almost always end up arriving late on both fronts, so they end up doing what they like or simply what’s available at that time of year, pretending that they are creating something that defines creative tension. In this way, it happens that what’s presented as culture is, in reality, often just pre-packaged entertainment. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s more like those small-town feasts or tourist village activities where nothing is at risk, nothing changes, and nothing leaves a mark. Guaranteed success and everyone’s happy. IndieRocket Festival is something different: bringing a variety of cross-cutting attitudes and music to a diverse and unfamiliar audience - music that they would rarely come across in their daily lives. Not trendy music, but also not for veterans or snobs. It’s music to discover what’s out there: new, strange, bold, not necessarily comforting, but stuff that’s good for you. We wanted there to be something for every taste, and we wanted to mix them to represent what exists as it is, without stubbornly chasing what will be or longing for what was. It’s this continuous, impartial exploration of opposites that contributes to the creation of new balances that we care about, dreaming of boundless horizons and different perspectives on the world”.
Music with attitude - not the usual electronic, not the usual funk: this trend of deconstructing genres and musical identities reflects a broader cultural shift. Popular musical consciousness is evolving, and as a result, it is opening up to new genres - which is why artists are beginning to tread carefully between art and chaos.
Gianluca Gozzi: “Our attitude and challenge is to break down boundaries and limits between different musical genres and different types of audiences, starting with the listening of the community we are addressing, and without imitating pre-existing patterns to create a substitute for other realities. We seek something beyond the obvious and appreciate artists who strive to surpass the vision of a world that already exists to explore the unexpected. Because today, in the current global music landscape, fortunately, there are no longer limits between those who listen to electronic music, those who listen to guitars, and those who listen to computer music. The only 'boundary' should be between good music and bad music. Therefore, our criterion has been to offer space to quality and original Italian and foreign music, paying attention to current and more visionary local and international music scenes, where quality and novelty merge without excluding any 'genre' and betting on the idea that people have more curiosity and open-mindedness than we sometimes think. IndieRocket Festival does not want to be a single-theme festival aimed only at a sectarian and 'exclusive' audience, but rather something popular in the most 'inclusive' and extensive sense possible, because, even before choosing an artist, the idea and attitude of the festival itself are important to us”.
Speaking of side activities and environment, the festival program is not limited to music but also includes culinary experiences and the celebration of local products. Pescara is indeed an underestimated and underappreciated context, but IndieRocket seems to want to create a true manifesto to establish itself as a point of reference and encourage the audience to reassess areas that might appear to be limited in content. The “rural” culture positively impacts the festival, as it enriches the art itself.
Paolo Visci: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about this! For this edition, having chosen an urban main location for a festival radically different from what we’ve done in the past decade, we didn’t want to completely abandon the experience of Parco Di Cocco, which has been our historical venue for the past ten years and more. That’s why we chose to close the festival in the countryside, specifically at Pollinaria, which is more than just a farm - it’s a dynamic entity that realizes and promotes research in the fields of organic and regenerative agriculture, art, and ecology, all within a single rural identity. Founded in 2007 in an agrarian complex at the crossroads of Loreto Aprutino, Civitella Casanova, and Penne, Pollinaria is the first artistic residency in Abruzzo and among the first in Italy in the extra-urban context, aimed at building regeneration perspectives for rural civilization. In 2020, Aequusol was launched, a program interacting with the local dimension that aims to establish new mythologies through contemporary art, biodiversity, sharing, and the history of Abruzzo. We believe it is crucial to help the public rediscover the richness of our territories, with which we have always had a deep connection. Art, culture, and thus music have always been inspired by nature and social and productive processes. Artistic creativity has many points of connection with our agricultural and food production. Telling and describing all this is one of the challenges we want to take on for the coming years”.
The festival is celebrating its twenty-first anniversary, an important milestone. How do you envision the future evolution of IndieRocket?
Paolo Visci: One step at a time. Right now, we need to focus on successfully completing this special edition to demonstrate to the local authorities the added value and quality we offer. The future is still uncertain, but we have many projects in the works, the foremost of which is to expand the festival into unconventional locations, like we’re about to do at Pollinaria on the third day, Sunday, September 22.
