Come dance in Puglia (electronic music under the stars)

When the gates open, the stretch of coast in front of Cisternino is a long reddish streak, painted by the last rays behind the ridge of Mount Pizzuto. When the amplifiers are turned off, at the end of the show, the sun has already started to shine again the line that divides sky and seawaiting to peep out. From dusk till dawn, Polyphonicthe festival that brings in Itria Valley all the facets of electronic music with over fifty artists among the most interesting on the global scene.

An event born in 2017, in Pugliaand has grown in record time, so much so that since 2022 it has also come to life a Milanese version. Between collaborations and events, Polifonic – which is also a record label – has begun to make itself known as well outside the borderstying itself to prestigious European companies and therefore exporting the Made in Italy. Yes, because the beating heart of the brand – despite the obvious international spirit – it is precisely its essential relationship with the territory and the Mediterranean.

Centuries-old olive trees and iconic trulli make up the a unique frameenthralling in its unrepeatability. You can be there and only there, that in a society infested by replicas and replicants makes all the difference in the world. A feeling of authenticity that we breathed by participating in the sixth edition of the Apulian event, which took place from 25 to 28 July in three suggestive locations: the beach of Cala Maka (Fasano), the eighteenth century Capece Farmhouse (Cisternino) and the beach club The Palms (Monopolies).

The rest is done by the music: from Dixon to DJ Koze, from Tama Sumo to Aurora Halal, up to Habibi Funk, Barbara Boeing, Egyptian Lover and System Olympia. An electrifying line-upwhich mixes world-renowned headliners with emerging talent, embracing the entire spectrum of electronic genres and therefore speaking to the widest possible audience: 62 acts, where there is space for the South Sound System, pioneers of dance hall, and the highly acclaimed Tullio de Piscopo, legend of the Neapolitan jazz and fusion scene.

It starts on Thursday evening, on the sand of Cala Maka, the finale is Sunday night at Le Palme. In the middle, the two key evenings, in the outdoor spaces of Masseria Capece which host the four stages: the Main Stage, the Sunrise, the Magma and the Cava. The audience is largely made up of under 30s, with a good portion coming from abroad: there are those who are on holiday in Puglia and decide to visit the festival, those who build their holiday around the festival, those who come only for the festival, taking advantage of the weekend.

It comes out a homogeneous postcardcoherent, where the energy of electronics is the amalgamating ingredient. As an invisible thread, that slaloms through the crowd, hugs it and connects it, then goes around the trulli, the olive trees, the dry stone walls, the caciocavallo, the figs and the bombette. All together, all together. In an inextricable intertwining of tradition and new scenarios, an incessant dialogue between past and future. In a word: AnteFuturethe theme of this edition, in which alien forms merge with the landscape.

Geometric lights, which become lace doilies but also flying saucers. In a journey between reality and imaginary places, waiting for a choral – and danced – salutation to the sun.