Arci Circles Festival of Rome

A festival that tells the story of Rome's Arci

The Arci Circles Festival of Rome is the major annual event where the network of cultural and recreational Arci clubs in the Rome metropolitan area steps out of its venues and gathers outdoors in a public park in the city of Rome, in the heart of the Lazio region. It is not a festival built around a commercial lineup; it is a community gathering where each club brings its own piece of the program, its own music, its own causes, and its own audience. The result is a multidisciplinary, free, and intergenerational event that has quickly become a recognizable fixture of the Roman summer.

From neighborhood parks to Parco delle Valli

The first edition took place at Parco Pallavicini; the second, in June 2025, brought the festival to Parco Marta Russo in Labaro, in Municipality XV, under the title "We are made of play and struggle." In 2026, the festival reached its third edition and changed homes again: it joined Roma Incontra il Mondo, the historic summer festival born at the Villa Ada lake, creating six days of programming at the Arena Rino Gaetano in Parco delle Valli, in Municipality III. This move expanded the scale of the event without changing its approach: free access, self-financing, and no intrusive sponsorships.

Live music and DJ sets

The evening heart of the festival is the stage. Across various editions, a diverse range of Italian and international projects have taken turns: cumbia and Latin music, reggae and dub, garage rock, electronica, singer-songwriter music, and hip-hop. The 2026 program featured, among others, 99 Posse, Asian Dub Foundation, 47 Soul, Bandabardò, Frankie hi-nrg mc, Giulia Mei, Selton, and Sarafine, with DJ sets from the clubs' consoles until late at night. Alongside the concerts, there is space for popular music schools and musical projects born within the clubs themselves, which find their most visible showcase here.

Debates, documentaries, and workshops

• Evening opening panels and meetings with journalists, researchers, and administrators, dedicated to rights, the city, internationalism, and youth cultural policies.
• Documentary screenings followed by discussions with authors and protagonists.
• Artistic and musical workshops curated by the clubs, open even to those without experience.
• Stand-up comedy and storytelling evenings.
• Children's area and play spaces, for a truly family-friendly audience.

A way of being together

The festival clearly asserts its identity: an anti-fascist, anti-racist, and inclusive space, attentive to the economic accessibility of culture. The organization is "plastic-free," with free public water, and explicitly invites attendees to reach the park by public transport, bicycle, or on foot. Catering is provided by the clubs and associations at popular prices: eating and drinking at the festival costs the same as in a neighborhood club, not a commercial festival.

Why it's worth going

For those visiting Rome in the summer, the Arci Circles Festival is one of the few opportunities to see the city from the perspective of its neighborhoods rather than its postcards. You enter a park for free, listen to great music, and meet associations that work year-round across the capital and the Lazio region. It is a very concrete portrait of the associative and popular side of Rome—the side that keeps cultural spaces open in the suburbs and, for a few days in June, brings them all together under the same trees.