GroundUp Music Festival

The Snarky Puppy festival among the trulli

The GroundUp Music Festival is the European edition of the historic festival founded nearly ten years ago in Miami by the five-time Grammy-winning jazz-funk collective Snarky Puppy. Since 2025, the event has chosen Alberobello, in the heart of Puglia and the province of Bari, as its permanent European home: a decision that has brought some of the best musicians on the international scene to perform among the famous trulli, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The artistic direction is led by Michael League, bassist, composer, and the soul of Snarky Puppy, who curates a cross-genre lineup every year where jazz dialogues with funk, world music, soul, and electronic. The result is a refined yet accessible festival, capable of attracting fans from all over Europe to one of the most evocative locations in Southern Italy.

Three stages in the historic center

For three days, the center of Alberobello becomes a large, widespread stage, with the various locations easily reachable on foot. The Main Stage is set up in the Villa Comunale Donnaloja, where the main concerts take place every evening from 8:30 PM. The second stage is hosted by the Trullo Sovrano, the city's only two-story trullo, which welcomes late-afternoon concerts in an intimate and unique setting.

Alongside the concerts, the festival offers morning masterclasses held by the artists themselves, listening sessions, a VIP area, and exclusive meet-and-greet moments for pass holders, such as the GroundUp Experience. It is this participatory dimension, in addition to the quality of the musicians, that makes GroundUp an event unlike a simple concert series.

An international event for Alberobello

The arrival of the GroundUp Music Festival has given the Municipality of Alberobello a prominent international showcase, combining the global fame of its trulli with excellent musical programming. The event enhances the territory of Puglia and the Itria Valley, bringing a curious and cosmopolitan audience to Alberobello that discovers the area's architectural and gastronomic heritage.

With its mix of big names from the global scene and prominent Italian guests, GroundUp has quickly established itself as one of the most original musical events in the Apulian summer calendar, capable of transforming a small town in the province of Bari into a live music capital for three days.