Festival Onde Mediterranee

A festival in the fortified town

Gradisca d'Isonzo, an elegant fortified town in the Isontino area enclosed by its Venetian walls, becomes the stage for Onde Mediterranee every summer, one of the longest-running and most beloved festivals in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Between late July and early August, the Castle Arena and the historic courtyards of the center fill with music, words, and reflections, in a program that combines entertainment and commitment.

Organized by the Euritmica Cultural Association under the artistic direction of Giancarlo Velliscig, the festival is supported by the Municipality of Gradisca d'Isonzo, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, and the Ministry of Culture. In over a quarter of a century of history, it has brought some of the most interesting names in the Italian music scene to Gradisca, building a recognizable identity loyal to its audience.

Music and Mediterranean Letters

The program is divided into two complementary tracks. On one hand, the concerts at the Castle Arena, hosting singer-songwriters, bands, and artists from the new Italian scene; on the other, the Mediterranean Letters section, a series of free-entry encounters with writers, journalists, podcasters, and intellectuals, dedicated each year to a major current issue, from rights to the geopolitics of the Mediterranean.

This dual soul, musical and cultural, makes Onde Mediterranee much more than a concert series: a place for meeting and thought, capable of speaking to the heart and conscience of the audience.

Memory and civic engagement

A distinctive feature of the festival is its civic engagement. Since 2016, Onde Mediterranee has dedicated a day to the memory of Giulio Regeni, the researcher from Friuli, with the participation of his parents and guests from the world of culture and human rights. It is this blend of music, words, and memory that makes the festival an event deeply linked to the Isontino territory and, at the same time, open to the world, in the context of Gorizia-Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture.