For Millennials, the association of the words “summer” and “TV” has only one meaning: Festival Barthe singing event invented in 1964 by Victor Salvettipresenter, author and television producer, who made the summer evenings of young people pleasant, especially those of the 80s and 90s. Even before the school closed, at the end of May, from 1981 to 1988 Canale 5 and in the following years Italia 1, broadcast what would become the musical program cult of all time. At least until 2007, when the show was scrapped due to lack of funding.
The history of the Festivalbar
Let’s go back to the 1960s, when Salvetti, a music lover with some experience in the entertainment world, invented the Festivalbar, first broadcast by Radio Juke-Box, then by Rai and, from the 1980s, on the Fininvest networks. The name was inspired by the jukeboxes, so popular in the bars and kiosks of the 1960s. Each of these devices had a device installed that detected how many times a song was chosen by users. In this way, at the end of the summer, it was possible to trace the most listened to song. And since this device worked with tokens, hence the term “gettonato”, which is now widely used especially on the radio to refer to a successful song. The Festivalbar was an unmissable event, a traveling party that touched, throughout the summer, some of the most beautiful squares in Italy, to then conclude, in most editions, in September at the Verona Arena. The biggest national and international stars of the moment took to the stage, such as SugarRaf, Vasco Rossi, Samuele Bersani, the Lùnapop, The CranberriesSkunk Anansie and many others. The sponsors were jostling to see their logo associated with that of the Festivalbar and the artists, well paid, didn’t need to be asked twice to be part of that musical bandwagon. After all, whether they liked it or not, it was the record companies that sent them to the Festivalbar, considered the showcase par excellence to promote their single. In 1998, the year of the premature death of the patron Vittorio Salvetti, the helm was passed to his son Andrea, who for a few years managed to achieve the same success as his father. After all, with a minimum effort from the artist on duty, the results were surprising. At that party, where the hosts were the most beautiful and young presenters of the moment, such as Michelle Hunziker, Alessia Marcuzzi, Vanessa Incontrada and Federica Panicucci, tanned more than ever in their skimpy outfits, and presenters who will make TV history, such as Fiorello and Amadeusquality was the last thing on their minds.
Playback, Sapphic Kiss, Exes: Memorable Episodes on Stage
The singers, in fact, performed in playback and they made no secret of it. On the final evening of the 1995 Festivalbar, Gianluca Grignani sang Hawk in half with the microphone in their pocket, as a form of protest, ça va sans dire, purposely going out of time. In 1999, Elio e le storie tese also refused to perform in playback, remaining still and with their mouths closed for almost the entire duration of the song Disco musicto the point of being carried off the stage by weight, as if they were mannequins, in a joking manner. This and many other curious anecdotes kept the audience glued in front of the TV and under the stage, in the squares. Like the kisswhether real or fake, between Lena Katina and Julia Volkova, the singers who formed the duo tATu. It was 2003 and that sapphic effusion, when it was broadcast, was censored “so as not to offend the sensibilities of younger viewers”. And how can we forget, in that same year, Michelle Hunziker and Eros Ramazzotti, together on the same stage for the first time after their separation, which occurred a year earlier? He, competing with An emotion forevermelancholic and moved eyes, she, the hostess of that edition, together with Marco Maccarini, visibly embarrassed when saying goodbye to her ex-husband, the winner of that year.
The decline
In the new millennium, the Festivalbar began its inexorable decline. In 2006, while Rai was broadcasting the World Cup, the program began to lose share. Italy had changed, the kids had changed. For a few years, it had been possible to download songs on the internet, you no longer had to wait for the Festivalbar, just as you could watch music videos on YouTube. In short, the web had come to shuffle the cards on TV. The pleasure of waiting no longer existed, because everything was now just a click away. In 2007, the decline of the event was already palpable from the fact that there were only two stages, Milan and Catania. The funds available were increasingly less, the sponsors disappeared, the program began to receive criticism and appear anachronistic. The following year, there was no longer any trace of the Festivalbar on TV. In recent years, there have been many events that have copied Salvetti’s formula, but none have managed to match its success.
Signature collections and petitions to have the program back on TV have been circulating, there are dedicated social pages, but there seems to be no more possibility on the horizon. Andrea Salvetti himself has changed his life, today he deals with renewable energy and promotes an environmentalist and holistic culture. In short, everything is silent.