Peppino Impastato Concert

A concert that is, above all, an act of remembrance

The Peppino Impastato Concert is the most deeply felt event in Cinisi, a town in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily. It takes place every year on May 9th, the anniversary of the mafia assassination of Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato, a militant, journalist, and founder of Radio Aut, killed in 1978 at just thirty years old for his courageous denunciation of mafia power. Since that day, Cinisi has never stopped remembering him, turning grief into a collective ritual of music, words, and commitment.

From the procession to the stage: the hundred steps of memory

The day of May 9th begins with the historic procession that starts from the Radio Aut headquarters in Terrasini and reaches Cinisi, symbolically retracing the path that separates the places of the mafia from those of memory. The concert is held on Corso Umberto I, just a few meters from Casa Memoria Felicia e Peppino Impastato and right next to the former residence of boss Gaetano Badalamenti, now a confiscated asset returned to the community: the famous "hundred steps" also recounted in cinema become a real path here, walked every year by thousands of people.

Music as a language of commitment

The Cinisi stage hosts artists who weave together different languages, from singer-songwriter music to jazz and contemporary post-punk sounds. Over the years, the concert has given space to well-known names of the Italian scene and a new generation of musicians, largely women, capable of combining artistic quality with civic conscience. This is not just a simple show: every song is an act of testimony, every round of applause a way to say that Peppino's memory is still alive.

Three days of initiatives

The concert is the culmination of a broader calendar that, in the preceding days, offers meetings, debates, screenings, visits to sites of memory, and the award ceremony for the "Peppino Impastato" Music and Culture Prize, which honors figures from cinema, music, and social activism. The event is promoted by the Pro Loco Cinisi 2.Zero together with the Municipality of Cinisi, Casa Memoria Felicia e Peppino Impastato, and the Musica e Cultura association.

Why attend

• A symbolic place: the heart of Cinisi, between Peppino's house and that of his assassin.
• Free admission: an evening open to everyone, including families.
• Music and legality: Italian artists singing about civic commitment.
• An entire community: the procession involves associations, schools, and citizens from all over Sicily.

Participating in the Peppino Impastato Concert means crossing a living page of Sicilian history, where the mafia is not a distant memory but a wound that the Cinisi community has chosen to transform into music, culture, and hope.