Ten days, in Rome. “Rep 2056, Ideas for the next 40 years.” This year, the festival organised by L’Espresso Group focused on this particular theme, and Elastica, as ever, took part in this great adventure, with events at Maxxi and the Parco della Musica Auditorium, from 3 to 12 June.

As usual, there were loads of important guests, almost uncontainable in a paragraph but we’ll try: scientists Roberto Battiston and Giovanni Bignami; the great photographer Sebastiao Salgado; Francesco De Gregori, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Roberto Saviano and Carlo Petrini; Fabio Volo and Fiorello who took part in an humorous debate with editor-in-chief of the newspaper Mario Calabresi. This was followed by a discussion between Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Eugenio Scalfari, ministers Pier Carlo Padoan, Giuliano Poletti and Carlo Calenda, and finally the economists Tito Boeri and Lucrezia Reichlin.

There were also lots of foreign guests, including Tahar Ben Jelloun, Hanif Kureishi and Michel Onfray. There was a wonderful evening with Natalia Aspesi and Lella Costa dedicated to the analysis of the sexual and emotional habits of the Italians, using material from Natalia’s advice column.  There was also an unmissable debate between Michele Serra and Fedez.

One of this edition’s new features was the “Zona Franca”, a night area for young people, with events focusing on comics (with Andrea Pazienza and the Bonelli designers), comedy from The Pills, music from Manuel Agnelli and Rodrigo D’Erasmo from Afterhours, Edoardo D’Erme aka Calcutta, and Niccolò Contessa from I Cani.

The grand finale of the event was a special evening edition of Web Notte, organised as usual by Gino Castaldo and Ernesto Assante, who filled the Parco della Musica Auditorium with the music of their guests.

^{Photo by Giacomo Maestri}