Key Milestones

1976
Pergine Spettacolo Aperto is founded, the first cultural initiative to create a summer stage in Trentino. The festival is born and grows in the town’s central square, serving as the backdrop for the traditional Living Checkers game, transforming the urban space into a theatre from the very beginning.

1979
The Teatro Tenda is built, which will host the festival for the next 35 years, welcoming renowned names from theatre and music. Marco Bernardi is its first artistic director.

1995
The festival reaches a stage of maturity. The high quality of its offerings clashes with market dynamics that weaken its identity: it is time to change course.

1999
The festival-laboratory is born, dedicated to musical production and training (especially concerts and opera). Leadership passes to Juan Lombana and Leonardo Cantelli, then Lombana with Mimma Gallina.

2006
The festival repositions itself as a guardian of collective memory, occupying the spaces of the former Psychiatric Hospital to reinterpret its past and connect it to the present. Artistic direction is taken over by Cristina Pietrantonio.

2014
The closure of Teatro Tenda marks a crucial turning point. A transformation process begins, with a focus on contemporary and multidisciplinary performing arts.

2018
The festival changes its name: Pergine Festival. Without a fixed venue, it chooses to enhance the urban and natural heritage, turning a limitation into a creative resource. It establishes itself as a widespread festival.

2023
Babilonia Teatri takes over artistic direction of the festival, a role they still hold today. The edition Senza età — collective, participatory, and intergenerational — enjoys great public success, consolidating the festival’s identity as a contemporary, multidisciplinary, inclusive space attentive to diverse sensibilities.

2025
Pergine Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary.