A special person

This article is published in issue 48 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until November 29, 2022

The day is rainy, gray, one of those mornings in Milan that don’t really put you in a good mood. Outside the Anteo Cinema there is a long line of people with umbrellas. Many are very young. It’s Saturday, November 24, 2018. A few weeks earlier I was appointed new director of Vanity Fair. I too enter the room and sit in the last row. The lights go out and Mika arrives on stage: in the general silence, the artist talks about himself as I’ve never heard him do. Seeing him like this, live, in a more intimate and close version of the classic interview on a written page or on the television screen, makes me understand (even more) how a newspaper today can, indeed, must become experience, surprise, emotion and progress. A new era of information and entertainment. An era that had never been seen before. Four years have passed since that moment, since the first Vanity Fair Stories, the festival of Vanity Fair which brings together the greatest Italian artists live. And four years have also passed since my arrival in this journal. To tell the truth, at least ten years seem to have passed, thanks to the pandemic and all the revolutions underway. These years have changed and tempered us. Above all, they put us to the test in a new world, more difficult, it is true, but also full of other scenarios and other opportunities. One of these opportunities is undoubtedly the new edition of Vanity Fair Stories scheduled for next weekend, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 November: the city is still Milan, but this year we have chosen an even bigger and more glorious venue, the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, the city’s cultural institution recently restored in all its splendour. Here and for two days more than 100 artists, i.e. more than double compared to the previous editions, will gather to talk about each other, to perform, to sing and act live in a series of talks that make it seem Vanity Fair almost like a Sanremo Festival in Milan. Admission is obviously free and open to all, but I advise you to book your place as soon as possible on vanityfair.it: last week, just one day after the artist calendar went online, many performances were already sold-out (it had never happened before and in such a short time!). In short, enjoy this issue of Vanity and don’t miss our Festival. And if you are not in Milan or cannot participate, there is always live streaming on our website and on our social channels. Once again: we are and remain beside you. Because in these four years Vanity Fair it has become much more than a newspaper: it is a cultural streaming of emotions, news, experiences, events, progress. Vanity it’s that special someone you can’t wait to meet again. The one who knows how to take you by the hand to always stay beside you. And with that person, with Vanity Fairevery moment becomes a special moment.

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