Estate al Torrione

A park returned to the neighborhood

For years, the Parco del Torrione Prenestino was an underutilized green space on the edge of the Pigneto and Prenestino districts, in Rome's Municipio V. Since 2023, local associations have chosen to bring it back to collective life with Estate al Torrione, a free summer festival that occupies the park from June to August, becoming the evening reference point for the entire area. The entrances from Via Prenestina 73 and Via Ettore Fieramosca 22 lead to an area equipped with a stage, refreshment points, shaded zones, and play areas for children.

Who organizes it

The festival was born from the alliance of three ARCI circles deeply rooted in the neighborhood: Nonna Roma, a mutual aid and food solidarity organization, Sparwasser, and Trenta Formiche, both active for years on the Roman cultural and musical scene. Dozens of associations, collectives, bookstores, and publishing houses from Pigneto gravitate around them, bringing their own proposals to the Torrione. The project is part of the Estate Romana program promoted by Roma Capitale.

What you will find at the Torrione

The program changes daily and is updated week by week. The evenings alternate between genres and formats:

• concerts and live music, featuring emerging bands from the Roman scene and musical selections by local DJs;
• book presentations and meetings with authors, often in collaboration with independent bookstores in Pigneto;
• debates and talks on labor, housing, rights, migration, and the climate crisis;
• open-air screenings, short films, and documentaries;
• theatrical performances and shows;
• exhibitions, art workshops, and activities for children.

A festival with a clear identity

The organizers define Estate al Torrione as an anti-fascist, anti-racist, ecological, and transfeminist festival: this is not just a slogan, but the framework that guides the programming and the rules of coexistence in the space. The park is designed as an accessible place, attentive to language and differences, where one can slow down the rhythms imposed by the city and find time to listen, learn, and have fun. Environmental awareness is translated into concrete choices: reduction of single-use plastics, vegetarian and vegan food options, and waste sorting.

The atmosphere of the evenings

Those who arrive at the Torrione find an intergenerational audience: families with children in the late afternoon, students and twenty-somethings after dinner, and long-time residents of the Prenestino area stopping by to chat at the bar. There is no ticket, no mandatory purchase: you can just drop by for a greeting or stay until late at night. It is one of the most successful formulas of the Roman summer because it combines the quality of the cultural proposal with the truly popular dimension of a neighborhood festival.

Pigneto and Prenestino

The festival is located in one of the most characteristic districts of the capital of Lazio: Pigneto, a former working-class neighborhood that has become one of the hubs of Rome's nightlife and cultural life over the last twenty years, famous for having been a set for Pier Paolo Pasolini and for its multicultural vocation. The Parco del Torrione, with the remains of the tower that gives it its name, adds a green dimension to this context that the neighborhood has historically lacked. For the Municipality of Rome, the festival also represents an example of grassroots redevelopment of a public space.