Tuesday 21 June in Piazza Solferino will see the inauguration of the new GE Plaza and the celebration of the start of Atrium Summer 05, the calendar of summer activities. It will be An Atrium Summer Night's Dream, the first of many dream nights that Atrium - one of the three Punti Verdi of Turin's summer - has in store for the coming months.
The date is no coincidence: 21 June is not only the first day of summer, it is above all the day on which Music Day is celebrated throughout Europe. The inauguration will in fact be a great tribute to the music of the last 50 years but also to dancing, the real protagonists of the programme of events in Piazza Solferino, which until September will be the centre of "A city that dances".
The party will begin at 7 p.m. with an aperitif offered by Atrium and the inauguration of the new GE Plaza. Where the spectacular ice oval stood last winter, there is now a large outdoor area with tables and deckchairs. The official opening of the space and the rich programme of activities that will take place there will be marked by Elda Tessore, President of the Fondazione Atrium Torino and Councillor for International Promotion and the Olympics of the City of Turin. She will be joined by Valentino Castellani, President of Torino 2006 and Giuseppe Recchi, President of GE in Italy. Recchi will talk about the fruitful collaboration between Turin and GE, the world's largest company in terms of stock market capitalisation, which has made possible the creation of the splendid "piazza in the piazza" that will host the events of Atrium Summer 05. GE is also a partner and official sponsor of the City of Turin, with which it has already worked, among other things, for the creation of the aforementioned skating rink in Piazza Solferino. As the TOP Sponsor of the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin 2006, GE is the exclusive supplier of a wide range of products and services for the Games.
At the same time, within Atrium, a marathon of three great films dedicated to music will begin. The first will be Prova d'orchestra by Federico Fellini (1979), followed by Radiofreccia by Luciano Ligabue (1998) and Lavorare con lentezza by Guido Chiesa from Turin (2003). In addition, the AtriumCittà's high-definition monitors will be tuned to MTV.
At 9 p.m. a marathon of music and dance will start in the dehor, bringing to life the best of Italian and international music from the 1950s to the present day. Alberto Campo, Margiotta, Johnson Righeira and Fabrizio Vespa, the evening's exceptional DJs, will take turns at the console to play songs chosen by them and by some of Turin's most famous personalities.
This journey back into the collective musical memory - through the most famous songs and dances, from twist to hip-hop, that have marked recent history - will go on until late at night. So as not to disturb the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, from 11.30 p.m. the square will be transformed into a Silent Disco. This is the second time that this technology - which originated in Holland and quickly spread to trendy clubs throughout Europe - has been tried out in Italy during an open-air music event (the first was the first weekend in June at the Flippaut Festival in Bologna). The mechanism is simple: the audience is equipped with headphones and, through wireless technology, can listen to the music and dance while the disco remains in complete silence. The headphones have adjustable volume and bass and can be tuned to two different frequencies, corresponding to two different DJ performances taking place at the same time.
Atrium, already an excellent example of the use of new technologies for communication and entertainment, could not miss such an opportunity. A crowd moving to the rhythm of music that is not there. An experience to be had but also a show not to be missed.
For information :
FONDAZIONE ATRIUM TORINO - 011 5162006
www.atriumtorino.it
In the picture : Silent Disco @ Flippaut 2005
