A Mente Libera in Piazza

A festival that brings mental health to the public square

A Mente Libera in Piazza is the open-air public event of the A Mente Libera — It's ok not to be ok project, promoted by the Youth Policy Office and the Department of Social Policies and Health of Rome Capital. It takes place in the San Lorenzo district, in the square of the Parco dei Caduti del 19 luglio 1943, one of the most iconic spaces in Municipality II, just a stone's throw from the Sapienza University City and the heart of Roman student nightlife.

The idea is simple yet ambitious: take a conversation that has remained locked in psychologists' offices for years and bring it to the street, among the people, without technical jargon or barriers. Admission is free and no reservation is required.

How the evening unfolds

The format alternates between moments of reflection and pure entertainment. It begins in the late afternoon with institutional greetings, continues with a discussion panel bringing together university professors, doctors, psychotherapists, and journalists, and leads into the evening with intimate talks and live music. The audience is not expected to sit in silence: questions from the crowd are an integral part of the program.

• Institutional greetings and opening of the evening
• Round table on mental well-being, moderated by a journalist
• One-on-one conversations and direct testimonies
• Evening talk with guests from the music and radio world
• Concerts and musical entertainment until late at night

The A Mente Libera project

The evening in the square is the most visible part of a much broader program. A Mente Libera offers young Romans aged 18 to 30 free, anonymous individual sessions with professional psychologists — up to five meetings per person — distributed across local offices in all the Capital's Municipalities, within the Rome Libraries and Farmacap facilities. The project is carried out in collaboration with Farmacap, Sapienza University, and Zètema Progetto Cultura.

In two years of operation, the service has reached about two thousand young people, and for the current year, approximately one thousand bookings have already been made: numbers that tell the story of how widespread the need for support is among the city's youth better than any slogan.

San Lorenzo, the right neighborhood

The choice of San Lorenzo is no coincidence. A historic working-class district of Rome, in the Province of Rome and the Lazio Region, it has been the territory of university youth, taverns, and clubs for decades, but also a place marked by social fragility and a constant debate on nightlife livability. Bringing an evening dedicated to mental health here means speaking to young people where they already are, without asking them to cross the threshold of a clinic.

Why attend

Those who arrive at the square will find an informal atmosphere: you can listen to a speech while sitting on the grass, stop to talk to a professional, or simply stay for the concert. It is an event suitable even for those who have no familiarity with the topic, and useful for parents, teachers, and educators who want to understand how youth distress is discussed today. The free, open-air, evening format makes it one of the most original offerings of the Roman summer.