There is a limit to everything, and some recent events in the city of Milan lead one to think that someone wants to cross this limit at all costs. I'm referring to the florilegium of press releases, statements, studies (but how much is studied and how much is probed in Italy?) and protests that, as if by magic and pure coincidence...(but who believes in coincidences?), explode with clinical timeliness, ....as an annoying cold on the day of departure for the holidays, in the days leading up to the few summer concerts at the San Siro stadium, this year those of Zero, Rossi and RHCP.
It matters little that stadium concerts represent a significant social and economic reality, which economically does not weigh in any way on the community but rather pays for everything and everyone: first and foremost the State with the payment of IRAP, IRPEG and with induced costs (professionals, employees) to manage the VAT and withholding tax accounts; then the SIAE for copyrights.
Even less is it of interest that the concerts provide employment for thousands of people, that they create turnover, for example, for the media and tourism in general, but above all for the city of Milan in terms of all the ancillary services, which bring work and money to hotels, restaurants, private transport, to all the local staff working for cooperatives operating in Milan, to Milanese entrepreneurs who provide services precisely on the occasion of concerts in the city.
Still less does it matter that concerts fulfil the wishes of so many people who, through the songs of their favourites, dream more, love more, work more, live more, hope more and perhaps emulate more by expressing their own personalities.
What matters is to safeguard the San Siro for the sport that has always been a national symbol, a 'state religion', is also clearly the country's great sickness: football.
The football that newspapers, sporting and otherwise, and television daily show as that of betting, of match-fixing, of ruined budgets, of motorbikes thrown out of the third ring, of the decree to spread debts, of verbal when not physical violence between 'fans', of matches interrupted by a phone call from the Federcalcio president to the referee, of rules changed in the process, of repechage of convenience, of Carraro and Capello, of super-salaries for stars and suspicious deaths, of creatine and Judge Guariniello.
Football at night in the winter and in the afternoon in the summer because television... has its needs... whereas the audience in the stadium?
The football of the lack of a widespread and serious policy that gives young people a future; of the lack of the joy and simple passion of playing football like that which animates those who attend a concert; the football that teaches you to be clever not fair, the football of the divers and the kickers.
The football that I love so much, in spite of everything, a favourite sport for me and my children, but which no longer sets an example, is no longer central to the economy of entertainment, is no longer sincere and is instead increasingly arrogant and powerful.
So arrogant as to put into the mouth of an official of one of the two teams benefiting from the municipality's 30-year concession, at more than market conditions, of a public asset paid for by the citizens and not by them, the unfortunate expression that few concerts should be given because music is not their 'core business'......
It is as if a theatre company, one of the many that Milan lets languish in indifference and in the total absence of a cultural policy, were to manage a public structure - I don't know, the future Teatro Lirico - and only ever put on the same show by the same company, despite the fact that the theatre clearly has a specific weight and meets varied and colourful needs.
Well: it is time to make one's voice heard and, metaphorically but not too much, to 'sing at the top of one's voice' that the San Siro stadium as long as it is a public facility cannot only be used for the matches of the two Milanese teams, but is the space that the transgenerational, multiracial, and music-loving people (how nice to see the same faces eighteen years apart at the Boss in concert) love the most, transgenerational, multiracial, colourful and correct people of music (how nice to see the same faces eighteen years apart seeing the Boss in concert) love the most, and these people have the same rights as football lovers and cannot be demeaned and humiliated by any Inter or Milan official, nor by the councillor on duty in search of visibility, nor by the architect who suddenly discovers the existence of hot water.
There is a limit, and it is not just the decibel limit, which we respect anyway, it is the limit of decency of information, of respect for work, sweat, art, joy and need, and this limit has been exceeded in recent days.
Claudio Trotta (owner of Barley Arts, organiser, promoter and producer of live concerts)
