Being sustainable means looking at a wider and more inclusive horizon at all levels, from small daily actions to large strategies. Culture, entertainment, theater, care for the territory - values and ideas that the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto has represented since its inception and that it wants to represent in the future - are protagonists and forerunners of this clear choice for sustainability.
We have been working in this direction for years. A cultural event that uses matter and resources, that impacts the territory, that sets people in motion, that makes them talk about art and ideas, can only focus on sustainability. Which has an environmental dimension, of course, but also a social one, which concerns people, especially the weakest, and an economic one, which means supporting and helping those who work and produce in the reality in which we operate.
Sustainability, for the Festival dei Due Mondi Foundation, means taking concrete action to reduce environmental impact, and operating ethically and transparently, to generate social value through a positive impact on the community and on people.
That is our bet. This is the reason why the Festival has embarked on a path of radical acceleration towards sustainability objectives, to be increasingly an excellence in Italy and in Europe.
A festival like ours must make the most of the opportunity to be a multiplier factor in terms of social inclusion; of the recovery of people in prison through theatrical activity and debate; of the inclusion of refugees through workshops; of supporting the local economy; of protecting the environment; of raising awareness of culture; of education and first-person involvement of the youngest.
It is precisely for this reason that starting from 2021 we decided with conviction to start a stronger and more marked sustainability path, increasing our efforts year after year and improving the results achieved. With this in mind, we have signed an important Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Spoleto, a five-year agreement aimed at defining and implementing shared actions, to increasingly reduce the Festival's ecological footprint. For example, we have launched a campaign for the reduction of packaging and for the recycling and reuse of materials, starting with plastic and ending with the reuse of graphic designs. A confirmation of the commitment undertaken permanently by the Festival came with the certification of effective and effective sustainability by the Umbria Region, in the context of the RES Sustainable Events Rating System of Arpa Umbria.
Stefano Mancuso, an internationally renowned scientist and passionate popularizer, is one of the world's leading authorities in the field of plant neurobiology, the science that studies the ability of plants to be sensitive creatures, capable of choosing, learning and remembering. Author of numerous books translated into more than twenty languages, director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV) and academic emeritus of the Accademia dei Georgofili, he has been included by the authoritative New Yorker on the list of those who are 'destined to change our lives'. Since 2023, Professor Mancuso has been a partner and contact person for all the sustainability initiatives of the Festival of Two Worlds.
In the 2024 edition, Stefano Mancuso held A Lectio Magistralis at the Teatro Nuovo Giancarlo Menotti, where he presented very alarming data on the state of our planet and also made some proposals to help save it. In front of a theater packed with people, Mancuso indicated in which direction to steer urban change, reducing asphalt and space allocated to cars, planting trees and green spaces, giving people back shade, oxygen and a better life for us and our children.
The furnishings of the Bosco di San Gregorio urban garden, including the tree planters, were built using wood from waste materials and made by Fercam Echo Labs, a social enterprise that employs asylum seekers and refugees, involving 300 people, 13 city schools and 13 associations of people in difficulty, and reusing more than 7 tons of pallets no longer used for packaging.
For the duration of the Festival, eco-design workshops were held in the garden: the little ones had fun transforming the wood of the pallets into fantastic creatures, monsters and characters that populate their fantasies. The older ones, on the other hand, have the opportunity to contribute to the creation of the furniture, which will be donated to the city of Spoleto.
During the three weekends of the Festival, it was possible to take part, upon registration, in the Dream Laboratory, meetings and real theatrical tailoring workshops. Guest speaker and visiting costume designer As always, some of the major names in Italian and international fashion and costume are part of the project. Thanks to them, the public was involved in moments of encounter and manufacture in which to make and treat themselves to a small accessory, in a logic of creative recirculation conceived by the guest designers, under the guidance of the première of theatrical tailoring.
At the roots of gender violence
Nell’ambito di No Women No Panel – il progetto europeo della Rai per valorizzare le donne nel dibattito pubblico, contrastando gli stereotipi, le discriminazioni e la violenza di genere – il Festival ha ospitato una giornata di confronto con il direttore di Rai per la Sostenibilità ESG, Roberto Natale, la direttrice artistica del Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto, Monique Veaute, la vicepresidente della Fondazione Una, Nessuna e Centomila, Celeste Costantino, lo scrittore Maurizio de Giovanni e il creativo Guillermo Mariotto. Hanno partecipato anche le associazioni del territorio, come l’APS Forum Donne Amelia – Centro Antiviolenza “Donne Insieme” di Narni.
Culture breaks barriers
Culture breaks barriers It is a well-established project that promotes the experience of theater as a tool for growth and social inclusion, through paths within the prison reality of the Maiano-Spoleto Detention House. In this edition, an event day was held entitled Un due tre, culture frees everyone: school, theater, cooking, stories, created in collaboration with Rai Fiction, Rai Kids, TGR Umbria, Rai Umbria. Marina Tagliaferri and Paolo Romano, from the cast of A Place in the Sun, and Antonio Milo, from the cast of Clan — Choose Your Destiny, participated.
As part of No Women No Panel — RAI's European project forvaluing women in public debate, counteracting stereotypes, discrimination and gender violence — the Festival hosted a day of discussion with the director of Rai for ESG Sustainability, Roberto Natale, the artistic director of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Monique Veaute, the vice-president of the Foundation One, None and One Hundred Thousand, Celeste Costantino, the writer Maurizio de Giovanni and the creative Guillermo Mariotto. Local associations also participated, such as the APS Women's Forum Amelia — Anti-Violence Center “Women Together” in Narni.
The support given by the Festival dei Due Mondi Foundation to the work of the theater company of actors-convicts #SIneNomine, founded and directed by Giorgio Flamini in 2012, inside the House of Detention in Spoleto, is confirmed. The project, which is based on an idea of theater as an effective tool for growth and social integration, involves every year the actors-convicts in a laboratory on the professions of theater, inside the prison, and in a show in which they are the protagonists, included in the Festival program. #SIneNOmine, which started with 15 inmates, has seen the involvement of inmates and spectators grow over the years, encouraging, thanks to ever increasing numbers, awareness and awareness of the concept of prison as a possibility of recovery and social reintegration. This year the CRETA show was attended by 1,400 external guests and 320 inmates, and 150 people worked: 85 on stage, 15 in the artistic staff, and about 70 prison police officers.
A film festival on the theme of environmental sensitivity, designed to raise public awareness and help them reflect on the crucial issues related to the environment. Because cinema is more effective than numbers and statistics. These titles explore fundamental issues such as environmental conservation and sustainability in depth, offering profound reflections on the need to safeguard our ecosystem and promote an existence in harmony with nature.
Newsstands have been a fixed point in the geography of cities for decades, as points of aggregation and reference. The advent of the web has significantly reduced the purchase of paper newspapers and periodicals, forcing many of them to close. The Green Corner project aims to return these places to the community as information and dissemination points, to promote the culture of sustainability within its community. The Corners are entrusted to 8 secondary school children, in order to acquire environmental and relational skills, learning to understand and adopt virtuous behaviors to promote in everyday life. In 2024, a Green Corner was also set up inside the Bosco di San Gregorio in Piazza Garibaldi.
It is an innovative accessibility project to promote knowledge of the Festival venues, aimed in particular at visually impaired and blind people with a view to inclusiveness. The project involves students from the IC Spoleto2 first grade secondary school. Thanks to the special QR Codes located near the different Locations, visitors were able to easily access the podcasts designed and created by 28 students, and thus discover the stories and peculiarities of the places that host the shows.
Through the exploitation of the many possibilities opened by digital technologies, the opportunity has been given to young people Storytellers to express their creativity and to actively contribute to the dissemination of the culture of their city, but also to make entertainment venues and main points of historical and artistic interest meeting places open to everyone and without barriers.
The ConDivisions initiative includes theatrical mediation courses aimed at young students to prepare the spectator to watch the show and to encourage their involvement.
600 children, coming from 37 classes of 10 local schools, have instead participated in the educational-musical project for primary school “Music is a child's play”, as part of the initiative “The Festival Siamo Noi”, which guided young spectators to discover some masterpieces of the classical repertoire.
A Kids section dedicated to children accompanied the little ones for the duration of the Festival.
The Festival covered 8,660 kilometers by electric vehicles in the last edition, with an improvement in air quality in urban settings, the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, the reduction of noise pollution and the evolution towards an advanced mobility system.
Seven trucks powered exclusively with HVO biofuel have covered 15,898 kilometers, carrying the opera's scenery Orpheus and Eurydice And the show Memory of a Fall, with an 80.54% reduction in emissions, equal to 17,875 kg of CO2 equivalent, compared to the same route with normal vehicles powered by fossil diesel fuel.
With the installation of 12 free microfiltered public water dispensers in theaters and in the most popular places in the city of Spoleto, the Festival aimed to reduce to eliminate the use of single-use plastic (84% less than in 2019), with a total of 3,330 kg of plastic saved, equal to 60,000 0.5-liter bottles avoided (2023 data).
The Festival - in collaboration with the Green Partner - has produced and delivered 1,400 aluminum bottles free of charge to companies, staff, workers and guests.
Le edicole rappresentano un punto fermo nella geografia delle città come punti di aggregazione e di riferimento, luoghi identitari da riconsiderare in modo positivo per una migliore inclusione sociale e integrazione del tessuto urbano. I Green Corner sono nati per riqualificarne una, in Piazza della Libertà, mentre un altro è stato realizzato presso il Bosco di San Gregorio, in Piazza Garibaldi: obiettivo, restituire questi luoghi alla collettività come punti informativi e divulgativi. I Corner sono affidati a 8 ragazzi delle scuole secondarie di secondo grado, al fine di acquisire competenze ambientali e relazionali, imparando a comprendere ed adottare comportamenti virtuosi da promuovere nel quotidiano all’interno della propria comunità.
È un innovativo progetto di accessibilità per favorire la conoscenza dei luoghi del Festival, rivolto in particolare alle persone ipovedenti e non vedenti. Il progetto coinvolge gli studenti della scuola secondaria di primo grado IC Spoleto2. Grazie agli appositi QR Code posizionati strategicamente nei pressi delle diverse locations, i visitatori hanno potuto accedere facilmente ai podcast ideati da 28 studenti, e scoprire così le storie e le peculiarità dei luoghi che ospitano gli spettacoli.
Un percorso di trasformazione digitale che non solo offre l’opportunità ai giovani storytellers di esprimere la propria creatività e di contribuire attivamente alla diffusione della cultura della loro città, ma anche di rendere il teatro un luogo di incontro aperto a tutti e senza barriere.
Concepire e implementare iniziative per favorire un turismo sostenibile e promuovere la cultura e i prodotti locali è uno degli obiettivi perseguiti dal Festival.
Le forme di tutela dei prodotti locali sono importanti anche per la salvaguardia delle varietà storiche. ll ruolo delle api ad esempio è fondamentale per la produzione alimentare e per l’ambiente: il Festival, grazie alla collaborazione del territorio, ha coinvolto gli apicoltori realizzando vasetti in miele, e dei laboratori per bambini al fine di raccontare l'importanza della biodiversità.
Per una rappresentazione equilibrata e paritaria nel dibattito pubblico e nelle attività di comunicazione è nato il Memorandum d'intesa “No Women No Panel – Senza Donne Non Se Ne Parla”, sottoscritto dalla RAI. Perché convegni, dibattiti, trasmissioni radio-televisive dove sono solo uomini a parlare rappresentano un racconto fuorviante della società in cui viviamo.
Nell’ambito di No Women No Panel – il progetto europeo della Rai per valorizzare le donne nel dibattito pubblico, contrastando gli stereotipi, le discriminazioni e la violenza di genere – il Festival ha ospitato una giornata di confronto con il direttore di Rai per la Sostenibilità ESG, Roberto Natale, la direttrice artistica del Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto, Monique Veaute, la vicepresidente della Fondazione Una, Nessuna e Centomila, Celeste Costantino; lo scrittore Maurizio de Giovanni e il creativo Guillermo Mariotto. Hanno partecipato anche le associazioni del territorio, come l’APS Forum Donne Amelia – Centro Antiviolenza “Donne Insieme” di Narni.
LALEOLAB è un gioco-laboratorio sugli stereotipi di genere e i bias di genere nel linguaggio, ideato dall’Università Federico II di Napoli per le scuole secondarie, con la collaborazione dell’Università di Napoli Federico II, Angela Gargano (INFN) e Antonella Liccardo.
In questa edizione sono stati realizzati un laboratorio di teatro e uno spettacolo nella Casa di reclusione di Maiano-Spoleto da Giorgio Flamini e la compagnia di detenuti #SIneNOmine. Un‘esperienza che promuove il concetto del teatro come strumento di crescita e di inclusione sociale, attraverso percorsi all’interno della realtà carceraria, ma anche uno spettacolo con protagonisti i detenuti.
Un grande successo: alle due recite e alla prova generale dello spettacolo CRETA hanno assistito 1.400 ospiti esterni e 320 detenuti. Ben 150 le persone che hanno lavorato allo spettacolo, 85 quelle in scena, 15 i componenti dello staff artistico, circa 70 gli agenti di polizia penitenziaria che hanno collaborato al buono svolgimento dell’evento.
Un appuntamento che ha coniugato cultura, istruzione e realtà carceraria organizzato da CESP – Rete delle Scuole Ristrette, IX Giornata Nazionale del Mondo che non c’è. Giunto alla nona edizione, il programma ha messo in luce i percorsi culturali intrapresi dai detenuti grazie alla partecipazione a speciali laboratori di lettura, cultura del cibo, pittura, cinema e mestieri del teatro.
Il progetto La cultura rompe le sbarre, ormai consolidato, promuove l’esperienza del teatro come strumento di crescita e di inclusione sociale, attraverso percorsi nella realtà carceraria della Casa di reclusione di Maiano-Spoleto In questa edizione del Festival si è svolta una giornata evento dal titolo Un due tre, la cultura libera tutti: scuola, teatro, cucina, racconti, realizzata in collaborazione con Rai Fiction, Rai Kids, TGR Umbria, Rai Umbria. Hanno partecipato Marina Tagliaferri e Paolo Romano, del cast di Un Posto al Sole, e Antonio Milo, del cast di Clan – Scegli il tuo destino.
Una incursione nel mondo dell’istruzione con un laboratorio gastronomico degli studenti detenuti e non della scuola alberghiera e la presentazione del progetto Scuola esercizio di libertà.
Since 2021, the Festival dei Due Mondi Foundation has been carrying out important work to recover and enhance the impressive historical and artistic heritage. An inestimable wealth of documents, photographs, period sketches, costumes and stage furniture, which tells a theatrical journey spanning more than 60 years.
Until now, thousands of costumes, a thousand show posters, more than 700 theater programs and 80 sketches have been recovered, restored and inventoried. The Foundation has also designed a narrative itinerary on the history of the Festival to be proposed to the Festival audience, to the citizens of Spoleto and to tourists, setting up exhibitions every year in which the main elements of the historical and artistic heritage that has been stratified over the years are exhibited.
The exhibitions deal with different themes every year, so as to allow visitors to immerse themselves in the various aspects of the event and to explore its many facets. After the exhibitions dedicated to the work of artist-artisans and to the founder Gian Carlo Menotti, in 2024 the Festival recounted, through the materials kept in the archive, the years of artistic direction of Giorgio Ferrara, who led the event from 2008 to 2020.
The wealth of the archive is of inestimable value for the historical memory of the city, and an essential trace of the cultural role that the Festival has played since the post-war period: Casa Menotti, headquarters of the Festival's Documentation Center, is a “treasure chest of memory” that gives shape and context to the Festival's audio, video and photographic material. The birth of the Documentation Center is the result of a close collaboration between the Monini Foundation, the Festival dei Due Mondi Foundation and the City of Spoleto. The Center, open to the public free of charge, has been included in the prestigious Museum Circuit of the City of Spoleto.
Among the initiatives already carried out, particular importance was the recovery, cleaning and inventory of more than 3,800 costumes, witnesses of an era in which every stage outfit was made by hand. A feat accomplished thanks to the team of tailors who have made the history of the Festival. A complex and difficult job: only 40% of the clothes were accompanied by a label that indicated the details, on a third of the clothes there was only the name of the artist who had worn it, and finally the rest were without any indication. The cataloguing was largely possible thanks to the memory and knowledge by the Festival staff of each work, of the history and styles of the artists involved.