Conceived by the Montelago Celtic Festival, the Epicentre project will take place from November 2017 to March 2018 with the aim of culturally revitalizing the Apennine communities affected by the 2016 earthquakes. It’s an itinerant festival that will tour the earthquake-hit communities throughout the autumn and winter of 2017-2018, bringing free shows and exhibitions by nationally-renowned artists, musicians and writers to the region’s displaced citizens. In order to pay for audio & lighting services, copyright fees, promotional printing & distribution, rental of generators & tensile structures, cost reimbursement, and food & lodging for artists, a series of donation initiatives has been launched, for which Montelago Celtic Festival is a mouthpiece and campaigner.

For every beer you buy at Montelago, 50 cent will be donated directly to Epicentro.

The project involves businesses, cultural associations and all communal administrations in the earthquake-hit Apennine zones of the Umbria and Marche regions. The territory in question includes, in Umbria: the mountainous zone from Assisi to the Colfiorito valley, the valley of Norcia and Cascia, the Valnerina and the Colfiorito plateau; and in Marche: the southern stretch of the Upper Chienti Valley to Caldarola, the upper valley of Fiastrone and Fiastrella to Sarnano, the mountainous area from Ascoli Piceno to the regional border with Abruzzo, and the National Parks of the Sibillini Mountains and of Gran Sasso-Monti della Laga.

The scope of the project is framed by the common cultural and anthropological elements of this extensive region, which in the past has engaged in pastoral, agricultural and forestry activities that in turn have influenced the cultural life (arts, folklore, food, religion) that has characterized this territory for centuries. Post-war economic development penalized the mountain communities by promoting migration of their populations to cities and industrial centres. As a consequence of this depopulation and resultant decline of public services, there has been an almost total abandonment of productive activities linked to the resources of the mountains, thus plunging the region into a state of neglect. Only in the last decade has this trend begun to reverse itself. The crisis of the urban-metropolitan and industrial model has led to a re-emergence of the hinterland’s potential, which in the meantime – due to the parallel absence of industrial expansion and indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources – has remained almost unaltered in terms of the primary qualities that have always distinguished it.

We must therefore start again with the enormous potential inherent in the beauty of our mountains, working to ensure that the culture and traditions of this region are not left to die, but can form the basis of a healthy and responsible future.

FEAR / WALKING / BEAUTY AND THE TRAVELING COMPANY

The revolutionary path and a symbolic gesture

Discussion / performance with Sandro Polci. The revolutionary path and a symbolic gesture: walk barefoot on a long sheet and leave your own coloured prints after dipping your feet in the paint.

Jean Giono says that "the sun is never as beautiful as the day we set out walking." So we walk (with our music, culture, theater) like a traveling company for a new wave of tourism in our beautiful Apennines (hosted or in tents, always safe). Bruce Chatwin recalls that "man's true home is not a home, it's the path. Life itself is a journey made on foot"; we propose to make it in the places of our hearts and minds.

During this presentation of the initiative, the first steps of the Manifesto of the thousand metres of this "walking tour of the Apennines" will be taken. Leave your colourful steps on the large sheet at Montelago.