Fregene Forest Festival

A festival born in the woods

The Fregene Forest Festival is a celebration of music in nature held every summer in Fregene, the historic seaside resort in the Municipality of Fiumicino, within the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Lazio region. The concept behind it since its inception is both simple and radical: to take live music out of theaters and into the woods, utilizing the natural acoustics of the pine forest and the Mediterranean scrub that separates the town from the sea.

The first editions took place within the Macchiagrande WWF Oasis, where the audience would reach the natural amphitheater carved into the holm oak forest on foot or by bicycle along illuminated paths. Over the years, the event has changed venues several times within Fregene—the Parco dei Lecci, the Senior Center on Via Porto Conte, and more recently the Spazio Sacro Santa Maria del Riposo on Via Sestri Levante, nestled in the pine forest—while keeping its identity intact.

Music, nature, and sustainable mobility

The festival is built on three pillars declared from the start: music, nature, and sustainable mobility. All concerts are exclusively acoustic, without invasive amplification, to respect the environment in which they take place; the public is encouraged to reach the concert site on foot or by bicycle along the pine forest paths. This choice makes the listening experience unique: the sound blends with the wind in the branches and the calls of nocturnal birds.

The musical program

The artistic direction is led by Carmelo Iorio, a jazz musician, who manages the festival alongside Kasia Chojnacka, a classically trained pianist with international experience. The program spans very different genres and eras:

• classical and chamber music, with original transcriptions and arrangements of works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin;
• jazz in trio, quartet, quintet, and sextet formations;
• folk and Mediterranean music, from tango to pizzica;
• guitar ensembles, vocal duos, and choral groups;
• performances by young students from the La Pantera Rosa music school, often opening the evening.

In some editions, the concerts have been accompanied by short readings on music and nature, curated in collaboration with the Gino Pallotta Library of Fregene.

Organizers

The event is organized by the La Pantera Rosa Music School of Fregene, with the patronage of the Municipality of Fiumicino and the collaboration of the Pro Loco of Fregene and Maccarese; in the editions hosted at the oasis, the festival was produced in partnership with the Programma Natura association and the WWF Oasis. The sixteenth edition was held on July 25 and 26, 2025.

Why it's worth the trip

Fregene is just over half an hour from Rome and a few kilometers from Fiumicino Airport, making the festival one of the most convenient opportunities for those spending the summer in the city to enjoy a high-quality open-air music evening. The formula—a concert in the woods at sunset, followed by a final refreshment featuring local coastal products like Fregene pine nuts, Maccarese melons and watermelons, honey, and local wines—has turned it into a defining event for the entire community of the northern Lazio coast over the years.