The Festival of the Italian Song of San Remo, born in 1950, over the years has emerged as  one of the most important event  of the italian custom.

The origins of the San Remo Festival  goes back to the firt postwar period , when the need to rebuild the country destroyed by the first World War, drove the administors of San Remo to think about the touristic relaunch of the city. In particular the primary need was the re-opening of the casinò and the relaunch of the winter season, that made the fortune of the health resort of the Riviera.

So in 1950 the first edition of the Italian Song Festival was broadcasted via radio from the renovated ballroom of the San Remo Casinò where the usual customers of the casinò didn’t capture the epochal proportions of the event. It was the television in 1954 that changed the impact of the event, making it be over the years not only a musical phenomenon  but also a cultural phenomenon.

The story of the Festival is intimately intertwined with the history of the Italian television: from the shooting  in black and white of the fathers of the italian music to the advent of the colors in TV in the seventies up to the technological triumph of elettronic scenery and TV in high definition.  But more than the technology , the Festival has been for decades a mirror of the Italian reality, including not only musical generes  and lyrics but also fashion and lifestyle.

So it’s not surpiring that in an epoch of fragmentation of the television audience, the San Remo Festival , comparable only with the national soccer matches –  is an event capable of catalyzing the attention of the Italian media, sticking millions of viewers to the television, writing flood of words in the print media and recently on Internet and on social media.

The fame of the San Remo Festival crosses the national border and it’s particularly popular in all those countries where the Italian song has proselytes: from Italian emigration countries, Latin culture nations up to the former Sovietic bloc countries where the passion for San Remo exceeds also the passion of the Italian citizens.

As it often occurs, the Festival of the Italian Song certainly is an event that deserves to be followed by television and by Internet , but if you have the opportunity to attend in person the event and live the atmophere of the city during that week, this is an experience that a real fan of the Italian song must live at least once in his lifetime. We’re here just for this: to help you make your San Remo dream come true.