Barezzi Festival 2026: Peter Hook & The Light, Glen Hansard and Arab Strap among the first names announced

The Barezzi Festival opens its twentieth edition, running from December 10 to 13 in the theatres of Parma, Busseto and Fidenza, with Peter Hook & The Light, Arab Strap, Sleaford Mods, Glen Hansard, John Grant and Gaia Banfi.

Peter Hook is dedicating 2026 to the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Get Ready”, the seventh album by New Order, dedicated to manager Rob Gretton, who died in 1999. With over eight hundred shows behind them, Peter Hook & The Light have worked their way through the entire Joy Division and New Order catalogue, album by album, in a project that has turned the reclaiming of a sound into a working method.

The eighth Arab Strap album, “I'm totally fine with it don't give a fuck anymore”, released in May 2024, is the harshest record of the phase that began with the 2016 reunion of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton. The title comes from a message sent by their live drummer, and the album lives up to it: Moffat's writing has grown drier, Middleton's sound more taut.

“The Demise Of Planet X”, the Sleaford Mods album released in January 2026, widens the Nottingham duo's scope: Jason Williamson's voice over Andrew Fearn's electronic backing now shares space with Aldous Harding, Sue Tompkins of Life Without Buildings, rapper Snowy and soul singer Liam Bailey. Williamson has spoken of an album marked by immense uncertainty and mass trauma.

Glen Hansard recorded "Don't Settle — Transmissions East & West" at Berlin's Funkhaus, the former East German radio complex, in April 2025: a live project in two volumes, the first due out on April 24, 2026, spanning thirty years of songs from The Frames to The Swell Season through to his solo records. For Hansard, the stage has always been the original format of a song, the recording merely a derivative of it.

Formerly of the Czars, John Grant releases his sixth solo album, “The Art Of The Lie”, out in June 2024, further developing the electronic direction that has defined his work since “Pale Green Ghosts”.

Gaia Banfi is the only Italian artist among the first names announced: daughter of Baffo Banfi, keyboardist of Biglietto Per l'Inferno, and a graduate in Jazz Singing from the Bologna Conservatory, she released “La maccaia” in April 2025 on Trovarobato, an album that blends singer-songwriter fare, electronics and vocal experimentation.

The lineup includes two Italian exclusives and will expand further in the coming weeks. Twenty years of programming open under the banner of “20 anni di ebbrezza musicale” ("20 years of musical intoxication"): a phrase that captures exactly what happens at Barezzi, where live music becomes transport, suspension, an intensification of listening, a shared vibration and a resonance between artists, audience and places.

General information and ticket purchases (presale on Postoriservato.it):

Thursday, December 10 – John Grant  –  Teatro Verdi | Busseto (PR)

Friday, December 11 – Sleaford Mods  –  Teatro Regio | Parma

Friday, December 11 – Glen Hansard  –  Teatro Regio | Parma

Sabato 12 dicembre – Peter Hook & The Light (unica data italiana)  –  Teatro Regio | Parma

Sunday, December 13 – Arab Strap (sole Italian date)  –  Teatro Magnani | Fidenza (PR)

Sunday, December 13 – Gaia Banfi  –  Borgo Santa Brigida | Parma

Barezzi Festival

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