Crinali Festival — Rasora stop (jazz saxophone)

Grechi Espinoza's Jazz on the Ridges of the Bologna Apennines

The Crinali Festival is one of the most original cultural experiences in the Bologna Apennines: not a series of concerts confined to a theatre, but an intertwining of walks, landscapes, and performances that transforms villages, trails, and ridges into open-air stages. The Rasora stop, a tiny hamlet in the Municipality of Castiglione dei Pepoli, in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, is dedicated to the jazz saxophone and its ability to dialogue with the silence of the mountains.

Dimitri Grechi Espinoza Presents "Love is a losing game"

On Friday, July 31, 2026, from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM, saxophonist Dimitri Grechi Espinoza will perform "Love is a losing game", a unique and unprecedented tribute to some of his favorite jazz artists. Grechi Espinoza is known for his concerts in reverberant spaces and for a sound research that blends jazz, improvisation, and reflection on the primordial nature of sound: listening to him outdoors, in the village of Rasora with the Apennine landscape all around, is a very different experience from listening in a hall, because the place is not just a backdrop but becomes part of the performance itself.

What is the Crinali Festival?

In 2026, Crinali will celebrate its tenth edition, running from May 27 to October 17 with over sixty performances spread across fourteen municipalities in the Bologna Apennines, including music, theatre, cinema, dance, and circus. There are more than thirty concerts alone, held in some of the most evocative locations in the area, featuring Italian and international artists ranging from classical music to sound experimentation. Many events are preceded by a guided walk that leads the audience to the performance venue; the musical artistic direction is entrusted to Carlo Maver and Claudio Carboni, while the event is coordinated by the Union of Municipalities of the Bologna Apennines.

Rasora and the High Bologna Apennines

Castiglione dei Pepoli is located in the upper Setta and Brasimone valley, at the foot of Monte Gatta, straddling Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, along the historic routes that cross the Apennines. Rasora is one of its most secluded and quiet villages, immersed in greenery: the ideal place for an evening concert that combines nature, contemplation, and live music. For many spectators, the evening thus becomes a double discovery: Grechi Espinoza's saxophone and a little-known corner of the Emilia-Romagna Apennines.