That Turin has changed after 2006 seems obvious to say; understand what its new identity is, less. A chameleon-like city, which has been able to overcome the grey Fiat period, the white Winter Olympics, to get to the kaleidoscopic cocktail of colors that is the Kappa FuturFestival: one of the most important electronic music events in Europe, now in its tenth year.
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When I arrive near Parco Dora, San Donato and Aurora, historic working-class neighbourhoods in Turin, are slowly waking up; obviously It is Sunday: some family bike rides, a couple of runners challenge the heat, dogs and masters accelerate their walk. Traffic noise, far away, is lost in the first soundcheck of the facilities. The calm before the storm. I hear an elderly couple chatting: “Last night the windows were shaking here! At midnight, however, they turned everything off. Good thing that there are these events, fill the city: when we were young us, there were perhaps a couple of clubs open until two. It wasn’t getting late, because everyone went to sleep early because the next day they went to the factory”. Unsuspected citizens favourable to changing times and the city that changes: real gems rare in the general climate of struggle to all kinds of nightlife.
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The first fauna of the Kappa FuturFestival I see in the gallery of a shopping centre, near the park. Unmistakable outfits: white Air Force with matching sock; shorts or shorts; short sleeve shirt or top, with the most absurd patterns and the most fluo colours possible. The dress code seems to impose mirrored glasses, fanny pack and fan. I hear them talking at the bar tables, while they have breakfast before the last day of the festival: the advice on how to deal with the twelve hours of non-stop music alternate with the memories of the night before, already gone down in history.
Towards noon, from a hill in front of the entrances, I observe the first participants heading towards the entrance of an immense shed: in the past it housed the Fiat steelworks, of which only huge, rusted ribs remain. Today it is a post-industrial park transformed, for three days, into the temple of European electronic music.
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Slowly, scooters, bicycles, taxis and vans, emerge from every street, unloading in front of the barriers the people of the Kappa FuturFestival. You feel electricity in the air, impatience for something long awaited. For two years, a couple from Palermo was waiting for him, but Milanese by adoption: “we are sick of electronic music, I have toured many places in Italy but there is no better event than this. I am an engineer; I work on shifts, but I did everything to get these three days of music”. The phone rings, a video call of friends: “No picciò, you did not understand next year, you have to climb especially for the Kappa. It is crazy!”.
Not far away a group drinks something in the shade of a tree, before entering. They come from Switzerland, almost for everyone it is the first time at KFF: they didn’t want to give up even an artist, that’s why I’ve been here for three days. What struck them, in addition to the good music, are the location and the atmosphere of friendship that is immediately established with the other participants. “Kappa in a word? UNMISSABLE!”.
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Another couple has just left two scooters and are preparing to enter: they are French, for them it is the first time. “It is a unique event of its kind; there is no place in the world where all tastes are satisfied as at KFF, where musical genres alternate and mix continuously: minimal, techno, house, hard techno, acid... The people are wonderful: we met people from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, all united by the same passion. Next year we want to go back there absolutely. In a word the Kappa? C'est incroyable!”.
Many young people from Turin who are about to enter, for the first time, the Kappa: excited, a little uncertain about how to move, are on their first day of festival. They seem to be here especially for a couple of artists, including 999999999999 (Nine Times Nine), Mathew Jonson and Carl Cox. Embittered for not being there on Saturday night, the day the big world shows, they still have great expectations, summarized in three words that herald an unforgettable day: leisure, making a mess and freedom.
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Born in 2009 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Futurism, over the years the FuturFestival has won fame and enthusiasts, expanding its borders: the tenth edition closes with over 90 thousand participants from 110 countries of the world, came to listen to 100 of the most important DJs of the global techno scene, divided into five stages and numerous after parties in the city. We just have to wait for next summer, for another 72 hours of music and new records to beat.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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