MIC Fest – Music in the Castle (Villa Sforza Fogliani, Alseno)

A festival that makes castles sing

MIC Fest – Music in the Castle is the major summer event that for over twenty years has intertwined live music with historic memory sites in the Po Valley region. Born as a local initiative, in 2026 the event celebrates its XXIII edition and has transformed into a distributed, multidisciplinary festival: 48 events, 68 Italian and international artists, 38 municipalities, and 8 provinces (Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Cremona, Mantua, Massa Carrara, and La Spezia), all with free admission. The artistic direction is by Enrico Grignaffini, who has made the dialogue between artists and historic spaces the distinctive feature of the project.

The Alseno stop, in the Piacenza area

Among the most evocative venues on the program is Villa Sforza Fogliani, in the hamlet of Castelnuovo Fogliani, in the Municipality of Alseno, in the Province of Piacenza, at the entrance to Val d'Arda, bordering the Parma area. The villa, with its two lateral wings opening onto an Italian-style park and a scenic double-ramp staircase attributed to the school of Luigi Vanvitelli, provides a perfect setting for open-air music. Here, MIC Fest presents one of its flagship concerts for the 2026 season.

Great jazz takes center stage

The Alseno evening is dedicated to author jazz: the Toscanini Academy Big Band, directed by Beppe Di Benedetto, welcomes as a soloist one of the most internationally acclaimed Italian trumpeters, Fabrizio Bosso. The program is a tribute to Miles Davis on the centenary of his birth, alternating between exhilarating swing, nocturnal atmospheres, and moments of intense expressiveness, blending virtuosity with great orchestral elegance.

Not just Alseno: a distributed program

The strength of MIC Fest lies in its variety: from June 12 to September 11, the festival hosts jazz, swing, classical music, song-theater, storytelling, dance, literature, and civil engagement. Among the guests announced for the entire series are names like Alan Clark of Dire Straits, the Vandoliers, Giuliano Palma, the Shai Maestro Quartet, Immanuel Wilkins, Stefano Bollani with Valentina Cenni, Frida Bollani Magoni, and the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra. Part of the initiatives support fundraising for Emergency.

Between music and heritage

Attending a concert at Villa Sforza Fogliani means combining the enjoyment of great music with the discovery of a historic residence and the hilly landscape of Val d'Arda. An evening designed for jazz lovers, but also for those who want to experience a little-known and fascinating corner of Emilia-Romagna.