The Moon and the Badlands Festival

The festival of 'paesologia'

In Aliano, a village in the province of Matera suspended among the evocative Lucanian badlands, La Luna e i Calanchi comes to life every summer, defined as the "festival of paesologia". Its creator and director is the poet and writer Franco Arminio, who has made 'paesologia' – a discipline "non-existent but necessary" that intertwines art and politics, poetry and geography – a true poetics of small villages and inland areas.

A village inhabited by artists

For several days, over one hundred artists do not just perform: they literally inhabit the village, living it day and night and mingling with the community. The festival thus becomes a space where emotions and bonds are born, where poets and musicians offer verses and songs to the people. It is a refined festival that draws on popular tradition, rejecting simple "cultural consumption" to offer an immersive and participatory experience, capable of attracting audiences from all over Lucania, the South, Italy, and Europe.

Nights among the badlands

Among the most magical moments are the night walks through the badlands, accompanied by music and words, with evening concerts ranging from gypsy music to klezmer. The vast clay expanses, sculpted by erosion and illuminated by the moon, become a natural stage of rare intensity, where landscape, poetry, and music merge into a single experience.

In the footsteps of Carlo Levi

The festival is deeply linked to the figure of Carlo Levi, who was confined to Aliano during fascism and set his masterpiece Christ Stopped at Eboli here, later choosing to be buried in the village. La Luna e i Calanchi ideally picks up his legacy, focusing on the inland areas of the South, depopulation, and the value of marginal places, in a collective act of poetic and civil resistance.

• Artistic direction by poet Franco Arminio
• Night walks through the badlands
• Concerts of gypsy, klezmer, and folk music
• Poetry readings, meetings, and performances
• Over one hundred artists inhabiting the village

More than a festival, La Luna e i Calanchi is an experience that changes your perspective: one of the most original and poetic cultural events in Southern Italy.