Visual Sound Festival

A medieval castle that becomes a visual instrument

The Visual Sound Festival is an electronic music and audiovisual art event that brings the Castello Savelli Torlonia in Palombara Sabina to life every May. Located in the heart of the Roman Sabina, in the province of Rome and the Lazio region, the project—titled Immersive Music in the Castle—was born with a clear goal: to highlight a monument little known to the general public using contemporary digital languages. It is not just a series of concerts, but an encounter between historical architecture and digital creation, where the walls, vaults, and courtyards of the fortress become narrative surfaces traversed by light and sound.

Live electronics, audiovisual art, and videomapping

The festival's formula combines three languages that intertwine throughout the evening: live electronic music, audiovisual performance, and videomapping projected onto the castle's architecture. Each show is designed as a unique, site-specific piece: artists work with the actual proportions of the rooms, the asymmetries of the masonry, and, in particular, the famous cycle of frescoes dedicated to the Liberal Arts that decorates the interior halls, offering an iconographic reference for the digital reinterpretations.

Seven evenings, fourteen performances

The program features fourteen live audiovisual performances spread over seven evenings in May. Each evening follows a recurring and recognizable structure:

• at 6:00 PM, an artist talk open to the public, where the authors discuss their creative process and the tools used;
• at 9:00 PM, a performance by an under-36 artist from Lazio, often featuring work created during an artistic residency;
• at 10:00 PM, a performance by a national or international artist already established in the audiovisual scene.

This alternation between emerging talent and established names is the festival's hallmark: in a single evening, the audience witnesses a direct dialogue between those just entering the digital scene and those who have been part of the European circuit for years.

The artistic residency

Before opening to the public, the castle hosts a seven-day artistic residency reserved for collectives selected through an open call. The groups work on-site, measure the spaces, map the surfaces, and produce audiovisual works designed exclusively for that architecture. The results are then presented during the festival evenings: it is one of the most anticipated moments, as it shows the public work that cannot be replicated elsewhere in the same form.

A network project

The festival is promoted by Flyer new media with artistic direction by Gianluca Del Gobbo and technical support from the Fotonica Festival team, a historic Roman event for digital audiovisual art. The festival also relies on international networks such as AVnode (International Network for Audio Visual Art) and the FLxER collective, guaranteeing programming that looks well beyond regional borders. The initiative is supported by the Lazio Region and the municipal administration of Palombara Sabina, which has chosen to link the town's tourism promotion to a contemporary artistic language.

Palombara Sabina and the Castello Savelli

The Castello Savelli Torlonia dominates the town of Palombara Sabina from the top of the hill, just over forty kilometers from Rome, at the foot of the Lucretili Mountains. Born as a defensive fortress and transformed over the centuries into a noble residence, it preserves frescoed halls and a view that opens over the Sabina countryside all the way to the capital. The choice of this location is not accidental: the contrast between the medieval stone and the digital projections is exactly what makes the festival's imagery so recognizable.

A festival focused on accessibility

The organizers have implemented specific measures to facilitate the participation of people with motor and sensory disabilities, an aspect not taken for granted in a historic building and which is part of the project's inclusive vocation. The evenings take place outdoors and in the interior spaces of the castle, with limited capacity: it is advisable to check access procedures in advance.