SPRING ATTITUDE
Returning for its 13th edition on 2024, September 13th and 14th, Spring Attitude is a contemporary music and culture festival, a pioneer in both Italian and international culture. For the third consecutive year, it will take place in the open-air spaces of Cinecittà Studios, a crucial focal point and artistic frontier in Rome. This festival, which is constantly evolving, has never stopped raising the bar since its inception, continuously challenging itself while staying true to its original spirit: celebrating spring as an attitude, regardless of the season - symbolizing renewal.
Building on the extraordinary success of last year's edition, which saw 23,000 attendees, and the strengthening of significant institutional relationships, Spring Attitude 2024 will further focus on the directions it has been pursuing in recent years. With an increasingly diverse lineup and a wide range of musical offerings -from electronic to pop, from alt-rock to indie- that appeal to audiences of various generations, Spring Attitude is helping to reshape and define the cultural profile of the Capital.
We had a chat with Andrea Esu, the Artistic Director of the Festival, to gain a deeper understanding of what lies behind this fantastic event.
“Spring Attitude, as I imagine is somewhat obvious to everyone, was born out of a passion - the one for music and entertainment. My team and I organized a weekly party from 2002, and after many years, in 2009, it grew into a festival - this is the evolution of Spring Attitude. In 2009, the festival still carried the name of our weekly event, <Elettrica>, and was in fact called <Elettrica Spring Attitude>. It marked the first step from a club of 300 people to a venue of 1200, and from having one name to a couple of names. The following year, we had four names, then eight the year after, and after three years it expanded to two days. Gradually, the word <Elettrica> was dropped, and we kept <Spring Attitude Festival>, evolving year by year into the current structure, into what it is today.
Spring Attitude has grown immensely over the years, especially in terms of attendance, in the last two years post-pandemic. The concept has always been the same: to create a fresh, colorful, and original festival that makes you feel like you're in Europe, both musically and in terms of the audience. I was a regular attendee at European festivals for many years -like Sonar and Primavera Sound- so I always wanted to create an event linked to music with various shows alternating one after the other, bringing the concept of a festival, which is quite different from a showcase. We are a team of six people with many collaborators - a large and important team. Initially, the festival had a strong electronic focus, but it has evolved to include elements that were previously challenging to integrate due to management and cost sustainability issues, like bands traveling from abroad. Fortunately, with the festival's growth, we have found a formula that matches my vision: a proper mix of artists, including live bands, DJ sets, solo artists, and so on”.
Spring Attitude’s lineup has always been extremely consistent and well-thought-out, aimed at bringing fresh and contemporary artists, appealing to both mainstream and niche cultures. The festival-goer is typically very engaged, and there is a high likelihood that they will add new artists to their playlist after discovering them at the festival.
“The lineup certainly has a coherence, even though some elements might seem distant or disparate from each other. For example, we’ve never really focused on avant-garde music, except for a few shows featuring more experimental artists. We position ourselves as a relatively pop festival - we showcase things that are known to music enthusiasts (we’re not too experimental from a sound perspective), but at the same time, they are alternative. We aim to balance well-known names that support the festival’s economic sustainability (which costs over a million euros and thus relies on ticket sales) with less well-known names that fit perfectly within the musical context. We try to select the most cool and interesting acts from various scenes.
For instance, I can mention Marta Del Grandi or Daniela Pes, who do electronic music with a certain kind of experimentation - they’ve produced some really cool stuff. There are also more well-known names like Cosmo, who, in my opinion, made the best Italian album of 2024. I try to include beautiful things that I like, while being mindful that they don’t only appeal to me or us.
Last year, we had an artist who sold a lot of tickets because it was her moment: Peggy Gou. From a positioning perspective, she’s an artist who doesn’t usually play commercial festivals in Europe -she performed at Primavera Sound, for instance- so she played (and plays) in cool contexts, despite her mainstream success. Personally, I hope the average Spring Attitude attendee is someone who says, ‘Out of 20 artists, there are 13 I don’t know, but I’m going to the festival to discover them live’. This is our ambition: that people who don’t know certain artists can discover and fall in love with them at the festival”.
Spring Attitude, being the most important festival in Rome, has managed to establish itself quite prominently. More than just a festival, it’s a sonic experience that serves as a moment of reconciliation with music at 360 degrees. It’s one of the last bastions of festivals that focuses on music as a unique experience.
“From the perspective of additional experiences, we’re still very focused on music - meaning that music remains at the core, and it still is. The experience for us is created by the community, the audience - the fact that you find yourself in a cool setting with an audience that I’d describe as European (in terms of approach) enjoying the concerts is the experience itself. We haven’t delved deeply into this yet, but in the future, we might organize extra-music activities - thinking about installations, mapping, or something that offers a visual experience, even though some of the shows already include a visual component. For instance, this year we have an electronic music group called Kiasmos, who put on a show that is as much visual as it is musical. From this perspective, the experience is defined by the event itself: being part of a community, enjoying together the emotions that come from seeing an artist you like and who gives you positive vibes.
For the past couple of years, due to the venue being a single environment, there are no overlapping stages. There’s simply an alternation from one stage to another, with no breaks, and the stages alternate from opening to closing. So one show ends on one stage and another starts on another stage, and so on - music lovers who want to see all the concerts can do so without having to make choices or sacrifices about which show to watch. Over the years, I’ve often seen festivals build massive mobile scenographies or set up ferris wheels to enhance the experience. For my vision (which is a bit punk in relation to music), these are things I like but don’t consider right now because I find them secondary to the enjoyment of the music. Personally, I’m not interested in going to a festival because of mobile scenery, balloons, or colored wristbands - I like the concerts. I know this is a somewhat punk view, and indeed, we are considering these aspects - especially since society is changing, and the audience is younger than me, so it’s important to do something while keeping music at the center.
The <Culture> component with talks and panels, for example, interests us a lot, but it’s a separate task and very demanding, so it requires resources to handle it properly and, above all, a venue that allows for dedicated spaces for these activities”.
A collective effort, made up of many individuals coming together as a unified whole.
There’s a lot of input from all the collaborators, but especially from Andrea within Spring Attitude.
“There’s a lot of me in the artistic choices. There are also countless other aspects handled by my partners and our collaborators, which are just as important, if not more so, to ensure the festival’s success. The artistic direction has a lot of Andrea in it, but to make this machine work, there’s a huge amount of effort from everyone else as well. Spring Attitude is like a child, a son: it’s very demanding and often involves enormous financial risks. Sometimes things haven’t gone perfectly, and we’ve repeatedly said we would stop - but because it’s like a son and you’ve invested your life in it, you can’t just walk away. You’ve invested your life in terms of time, emotions, and effort, so how can you just throw that away? This aspect somewhat traps you, as you can’t really detach yourself. Spring Attitude is something I care deeply about, and yes, I feel upset when there are issues I can’t resolve. It’s 100% a part of me, as it is with all passionate work that one values and has built in life. It’s definitely more challenging, but that’s also part of its beauty”.
The future of Spring Attitude is bright, promising even more sophisticated lineups with sensational concerts that will attract both seasoned listeners and new music enthusiasts from all over Italy and beyond.
“In the future, I’d love to bring new things to the stage, but also bands that have changed my life. I’m thinking of the Pixies, LCD Soundsystem - basically, I’d like to include these incredible historic bands, and since they’re doing reunions, who knows, maybe I’ll succeed. A name I’d like to feature, which is on everyone’s lips, is Fred Again or Charli XCX - this kind of British pop-electronic music that I really enjoy.
Regarding the local scene, we all have our roots in Rome. It’s already incredibly difficult to make things happen here; thinking about expanding it with all the competition is very challenging - we don’t even consider it. Instead, we focus on doing one thing and doing it well, right here. For the future, the ambition is the obvious one: growth, trying to continue growing. We have an incredible venue, which is crucial for achieving this goal. We want to maintain the audience we have; we’ve positioned ourselves with the right numbers, and we want to sustain them in the coming years. We’d be very happy to host a festival that people follow without stress, where attendees come regardless of the lineup. Maybe one year we have bigger headliners because they’re on tour at that time, and another year we have smaller names, but the audience follows us regardless - we’re interested in building loyalty with our festival-goers. We want to reach a point where the Spring Attitude brand becomes stronger than the artists featured; the festival is an experience, so you know that if you go there, regardless of the band, you’ll have a great time because it’s your place in the world”.
Spring Attitude is more than just a festival: it’s a new way of experiencing music. With a lineup perpetually balancing between mainstream and niche new talents with contemporary sounds, the festival is a benchmark for the Capital and all of Italy. Constantly evolving, it keeps music at its core, aiming to become a true community where people feel at home.
