Travel: Rome, Italy
May Day Concert
If you happen to be in Rome during Spring, every year on 1st May there is a free music concert hosted at Piazza San Giovanni. People come from all over to participate in the event. This year I decided to take my sons with me.
Important info
Address: Piazza San Giovanni
Cost: Free
Opening hours: From 15:00 until midnight
Accessibility: The concert takes place in the Piazza and so is easily accessible for all. There are huge crowds though which could cause difficulties.
Website: https://www.primomaggio.net/
May Day Concert History
"The May Day Concert is the largest free live music event in Europe. Born in 1990, the event is promoted by CGIL, CISL and UIL and is organized annually in Rome, attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators. The Concert is also broadcast in its entirety live by RAI 3 and RAI Radio 2.
A musical marathon, a television program and a street event at the same time, with the aim of satisfying everyone while maintaining high quality and with a background of social content that is always present and vivid."
This years event
This years event was hosted by Ambra Angiolini and Biggio.
We arrived just after 3pm and ended up queuing for over an hour and half to get into the Piazza as there were security measures put in place to avoid over crowding in the Piazza... the crowds in line to get in were huge and there was lots of pushing though. If you plan to attend in the future and have kids with you I suggest getting there early to avoid the 'big push'.
Pushing aside, everyone was in good spirits and we all chatted and sang while we waited.
It was raining on and off all day so we did most of our time queuing under the rain. There were so many people though and lots with umbrellas that we didn't actually get that wet.
Having finally made it into the Piazza trying to find a place where we could see the stage was a struggle. Neither myself or my boys are tall and there were so many people.
We stayed for a while, danced and sang along to several artists. Our favourites were BNKR44 and Gaia. Gave the boys the experience of the May Day Concert, but then the rain got heavier and we decided to head home and watch the rest on the TV.
Overall I'm happy we went as we did have fun and in a way the rain and crowds made it even more memorable as an experience. I think the key with events like this is to approach them with the right attitude.
Later at home, warm and dry, we watched the rest of the concert on the TV and pointed out people we had chatted to whilst we were there when we saw them on screen.
If you want to learn some basic Italian, you might also want to check out my book Italian for Tourists which is a pocket-sized English/Italian phrasebook.
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