The Villafranca Festival returns to Verona, bringing with it some of the best exponents of outstanding music and comedy, both Italian and worldwide. A month of events will begin on July 8 with Max Angioni. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals and saxophonist Jimmy Sax are also on the billboard.    

A billboard featuring famous figures will take place in Villafranca. It all starts off tomorrow, Saturday, July 8 at 21:30, with “Miracolo” – “Miracle” – the performance of the comic Max Angiolini, just back from an 80% sold-out tour around the peninsula. Max will also go outside of Italy this year, to Switzerland and England, where he will be the first Italian in history to perform at the Comedy Store. The world of sports and the curse of constantly coming second are just some of the subjects of his monologues, which provide an exhilarating look at everyday life and a weapon to exorcise the reality in which the audience entirely abandons itself. 

On Sunday, July 9 at 21:15, Drusilla Foer will enter the Castello Scaligero with a tour through his life’s stories through Italy, Cuba, America, and Europe. A recital of out-of-the-ordinary encounters and friendships that Drusilla Foer will stage with his musicians Loris Di Leo on piano and Nico Gori on sax and clarinet, as well as his famous manager and producer Franco Godi on guitar. 

In fact, the Villafranca Festival offers a lot more than comedy; the 2023 edition will be launched by one of the most prominent protest composers of his generation, Ben Harper, who will perform his current album Bloodline Maintenance with longtime collaborator Sheldon Gomberg. Aphex Twin will follow Ben Harper with the only Italian date at Villafranca. After five years, he returns as one of the most creative and unique personalities in the electronic music world. The Irish, considered the “Mozart of electronics”, also created Windowlicker, which critics describe as “the theme song of all twentieth-century music”. 

On July 22, comedy returns with Pintus, one of Italy’s most famous and loved comedians, with his show “Bau,” an Italian expression for imitating the sound of barking dogs. “But do you really need to explain a program with a title like “Bau”? Do I really need to tell you what it’ll be about? It might make sense if it was called “Miao,” but it’s called “Bau”! Sometimes, I really want to bark!” he declares about his performance. On the other hand, when it comes to a name like Pintus, you can’t explain his comedy; you must live it.  

An alternation of Italian and foreign characters that will extend all the way to the French. Maestro Vincenzo Sorrentino, virtuoso pianist, artistic director, and composer of soundtracks for the small and large screen, accompanies Jimmy Sax and the Symphonic Dance Orchestra. Jimmy traveled the world with his saxophone, from St. Tropez to Miami, Dubai to Paris, New Delhi, and Monaco. As seen by the half-billion streams on its platforms, he is an artist who can fascinate and surprise all sorts of listeners, from the youngest to classical music fans. 

And, at the festival’s conclusion, the singer Madame on July 29, the youngest Targa Tenco winner for best debut album and best song “Voce”, a song that also won the Premio Lunezia and the Bardotti Award for best lyrics, Back from the Sanremo Festival, Italy’s most major musical event, hundreds of fans will make their way to Villafranca to sing at the top of all his most popular songs.