The Maggio of Accettura is the most notorious tree festival in Italy. It is a rather unique event, which every year attracts the interest of many visitors, scholars, activists, film-makers, and photographers. The population of Accettura participates en masse in the festival, which follows a rich religious calendar centered on the cult of Saint Julian of Sora. The days between the Saturday of Pentecost and the following Tuesday are the heart of the celebration, with the cutting and transportation of trees from the nearby forests to the village, the erection in the square, the climbing, and the religious celebrations. However, the full sequence of events unravel during a number of weeks. It is sufficient just to mention the upkeep of dozens of oxen – animals that are no longer employed in agricultural work, but that local families nonetheless raise for years as a form of devotion because of their central role in the dragging of the trees from the wood to the village.
The fundamental importance of the sonic component may be sensed already in accounts from the past, even though only in recent years has its role emerged as crucial in the overall unfolding of the ritual. Apparently chaotic, the constant sound created by groups of spontaneous performers and musicians represents a fundamental part of the festival.
The research on the Maggio festival has been enriched in recent years with significant contributions in English, which have increased interest in the event, and brought it into an international debate; some of the main contributions are accessible through this website.
The cancellation of the Maggio festival of Saint Julian in 2020 and 2021, due to COVID-19, provoked a gap in the history of Accettura. The experience of Accettura 2020 Il Maggio del Silenzio, was created from the urgency of facing this traumatic caesura. It was the first step toward the creation of the Accettura Multimedia Archive, a place for sharing documents and stories about the festival and the cultural aspects of the village.
The resumption of the festival in 2022 closes that phase and marks a new beginning. It is described here through a plurality of voices and gazes that allow to grasp the atmosphere, the passion and the deepest feelings arising from the intense participation of the Accetturesi in this important event.
At the beginning, there are some examples of the research carried by Giovanni Cestino, Shan Du, and Nicola Scaldaferri, the result of the constant attention that the LEAV – Audiovisual Ethnography Lab of the University of Milan, has been dedicating for years to Accettura.
An extensive video reportage by Biagio Labbate follows; it is able both to portray the festival in its entirety, as well as to underline some crucial moments thanks to his deep knowledge of the events, being an Accetturese himself.
The last part features a collective photographic story, in which the eyes of Marina Berardi, Angelo Gabriele Mazzolla, Vincenzo Montefinese, Fausto Podavini, and Antonio Trivigno meet and highlight new aspects of the festival.
This plurality of glances, as a result of participation and sharing, not only wants to testify this new beginning, but also wants to be an opportunity to describe the festival in new ways, and to an ever wider audience. For this reason, alongside the usual versions of the page in Italian and English, a Chinese translation has been added here for the first time.
Making, Carrying, Dancing Devotion. The “Cente” of Saint Julian
Shan Du, Nicola Scaldaferri (LEAV-University of Milan)
The “cente” are objects built and brought out of devotion to St. Julian; around them a series of practices, both private and public, are carried out almost entirely by women. The video is focused on the mastery and the taste in building them, the dexterity in carrying them, and even in dancing with the weight of the many kilos of wax they are made. It presents an aspect of the “Maggio” balanced between intimacy and flashiness, between private devotion and public performance.
With the Eyes of the Zampogna. Listening to Four Generations of Singers
Giovanni Cestino, Nicola Scaldaferri (LEAV-University of Milan)
In the song “a zampogna”, various singers, gathered around the player, alternate to intone short pairs of verses, singing precisely “near the zampogna”, that is, directing the voice and the song towards the instrument. Instead of filming this practice from a listener’s perspective, this video, shot with a GoPro mounted on the instrument (see image), presents from a very special perspective a performance in which four generations of singers alternate.
A Life for the “Cima”. “Uncle” Rocco Vespe, 2004-2022
Giovanni Cestino, Shan Du, Nicola Scaldaferri (LEAV-University of Milan)
“Uncle” Rocco Vespe is one of the most charismatic and most loved “cimaiolo” of the festival, so much so that he has earned the nickname of “President” of the “Cima”. After twenty years of research on the “Maggio” conducted by Nicola Scaldaferri and several collaborators of the LEAV of the University of Milan, this video combines the most recent shots that portray him with the older ones, shot in 2004, to compose a tribute to this’ man and his dedication to the festival.
Symphonies around the Maggio
Giovanni Cestino, Nicola Scaldaferri (LEAV-University of Milan)
This audio clip was recorded by placing a microphone head (see image) equipped with four DSM microphones (Dynamic Stereo Microphones), at the top of the steps on the Largo San Vito arena, during the work to erect the threes. It includes two parts – with a spatial depth that intends to simulate the richness of human listening – which restitute the amazing sound complexity that can reach the festival even in the less organized moments. The sounds of working, the songs with “zampogna”, and the marching bands are all mixed together in a complex game of sonic planes.
“Far from the Madding Crowd.” Echoes from a Procession
Giovanni Cestino, Nicola Scaldaferri (LEAV-University of Milan)
How does Accettura sound away from the path of the procession of Saint Julian? In this video we have chosen to follow the procession in a peripheral position, to capture what happens, on an acoustic level, when the music of the marching bands makes its way through the small streets of the village, creating particular acoustic effects. The shot was made wearing an action camera on the forehead and wearing a pair of DSM microphones as headphones (see image), to obtain a completely subjective perspective.
Video reportage
Biagio Labbate
Fotografic gazes
