Spring Attitude Festival 2024

If Rome has finally established a Festival with genuine European scope like Spring Attitude, the Capital's audience has artistic director Andrea Esu and his entire staff to thank for the extraordinary work accomplished. A Festival that every year broadens its chest, breathing an increasingly pronounced stylistic diversity, growing bigger and more ambitious with each edition. No one in Rome had managed until now to create an event of this kind, packed into a single weekend: we're not talking about the many series that function as containers for events, often rather incongruous ones, spread out over two or three months, but a genuine Festival, one that has endured and grown for several years now (we're at edition number XIII) with a prestigious lineup offering plenty to be excited about. The phrase heard most often this year was: by now Spring Attitude is a mini Primavera Sound.

It's no coincidence that I ran into many friends, or mere acquaintances, the kind I usually cross paths with between stages at Parc del Forum, in the midst of that immersive Catalan funfair. This happened especially on the second day of this edition, Saturday September 14th, which saw the highest concentration of indie-rock ever at Spring Attitude, with some of the most talked-about names of the moment, starting with the highly rated Fat Dog, the latest hyped post-punk act out of the UK, whose just-released debut climbed into the Top Ten of the British sales charts. They perhaps play a touch too early, at 4:45pm, but in the Spring Attitude line-up there's never a wasted or underrated minute: even among the first musicians to perform, while the sun is still high, you can find unmissable names who might become your favourites in the months ahead.

The same goes for Film School, who on Friday, under the rain, were placed almost at the very start of the bill: American nu-gazers who never broke out of their own niche, back after a period on stand-by with plenty of appetite to try again. Even more anticipated were the performances by Bar Italy, a trio of English indie-rockers expanded into a quintet for live shows, fronted by Nina Cristante, a Rome-born singer who on a couple of occasions proves she has quite the temperament (first she tells off the lighting technician, demanding he keep the stage lights white, then complains because the strict scheduling won't let her play the last song on the setlist, walking off — her and the rest of the band, after a performance that exceeded expectations — without even waving goodbye to the fans), and by Viagra Boys, hyper-muscular Swedes who make a brand of post-punk that's constantly over the top, by now among the leading acts in their genre. Entertaining, with a special mention for saxophonist Oskar Carls, who stuns everyone during the long instrumental charge of "Amphetanarchy". Straddling indie and electronic music, Mount Kimbie offer something perfect for dancing at a lower BPM.

The electro side of Spring Attitude is out of this world as usual, with an enviable lineup of DJs, producers and beatmakers keeping the spotlight on what used to be this Festival's core business, now shared with other musical genres, all in the name of flying the flag of cross-pollination as high as possible.

Backing the best remains the priority, and Barry Can't Swim is one of those artists who this year showed up at all the world's major music festivals, also picking up a nomination at the prestigious Mercury Prize, the award given each year to the best album released by English or Irish musicians.

The rest of the more properly electronic section is split evenly between MACE's commanding dj-set, with truly stunning visuals, that of the duo The Blaze, the lively Acid Arab, a welcome return after last year's success, and Sama' Abdulhadi, the Palestinian DJ everyone's talking about, who is handed the closing dj-set. One might have expected more from Iceland's Kiasmos (one half of the duo being the acclaimed composer Olafur Arnalds), whose deep house was perfectly suited to a sunset aperitif, Café del Mar style.

The Italian contingent confirms one of Spring Attitude's missions: to select the highest-quality acts emerging across our peninsula. Cosmo and Motta are two of the best songwriters we have, and they hold their own perfectly alongside so many international stars - in fact, they prove they have nothing to envy at all.

Cosmo fits perfectly into the history of Spring, always knowing how to turn a live act into a rave party; here he wraps up the tour supporting "On the wings of the white horse": a triumph. Motta delivers one of the most rock moments of the two-day Rome event, backed by a weighty repertoire and, as usual, a top-notch backing band: behind the synths is Whitemary, who will shortly have the crowd dancing to songs from her forthcoming new album, while on bass - as throughout the rest of the tour - is Roberta Sammarelli of Verdena, who plays exactly as if she were standing beside Alberto Ferrari. Andrea Appino joins him onstage for two songs on acoustic guitar, and for "Minotauro" the band is also joined by rapper Danno of Colle der Fomento. Motta takes the opportunity to announce that another album - of which, he stresses, he is particularly proud - will arrive in November: we'll be seeing him again soon.

This year Spring also offers the chance to admire up close (it's never truly impossible to enjoy any event near the barrier) two bright rising stars of our music scene, who promise to go a long, long way: Daniela Pes and Marta Del Grandi, moving to an almost unbearable degree and possessed of a deeply European sensibility - the latter penalised by the rain that lashes down through the first part of Friday.

Marco Castello dishes out endless groove, even including in his set an energetic version of Lucio Battisti's "Dio mio no"; Bobby Joe Long's Friendship Party play a home game with their urban tales, winning the crowd over with irreverence and huge guitar riffs; Emma Nolde confirms herself a songwriter and musician of rare sensitivity, onstage surrounded by synths and guitars. Gaia Morelli, Rbsn, Anna And Vulkan carve out small but precious slices of visibility.

An overwhelming whirlwind of emotions, played out for the second year running in the large courtyard that serves as the entrance to the Cinecittà Studios; the tried-and-tested formula of two side-by-side stages is confirmed once again, allowing performances to run without any interruption. All around are food trucks and refreshment stands, letting people keep following the performances even while queuing for a beer or a sandwich. With the venue now well established - and it has no shortage of strengths, such as the metro stop right in front of the entrance - the crowd keeps turning out in real numbers, showing, year after year, an ever greater stratification, both in age and musical taste.

A crowd that packs in from 3:30pm to 3:30am, twelve hours of enthusiasm, of communion, of natural coexistence - seen from afar it looks like a single body in constant motion. In 2024 too, Spring Attitude confirms itself as a festival shaped for all those who place curiosity at the top of their scale of values, an event capable of changing gradually while keeping its roots firmly intact, and guaranteeing a liveability that is anything but a given when you're growing at this kind of pace. A full immersion halfway between a rock arena and an open-air mega disco, one that is finally putting Rome among Europe's great music capitals. In this field at least, it can now be sure of playing Champions League football every year.

Friday 13 September line-up:

Rbsn

Film School

Marta Del Grandi

Marco Castello

Daniela Pes

Cosmo

MACE

Barry Can’t Swim

The Blaze

Jersey

Saturday 14 September line-up:

Anna And Vulkan

Gaia Morelli

Fat Dog

Emma Nolde

Bobby Joe Long’s Friendship Party

Bar Italy

Motta

Viagra Boys

Mount Kimbie

Whitemary

Kiasmos

Acid Arab

Sama' Abdulhadi

Ride the wave of great music

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