La luna e i calanchi: Aliano's festival defying depopulation

Franco Arminio, poet and founder of the festival La luna e i calanchi, has transformed Aliano, a small town near Matera, into a cultural hub. The festival, now in its 15th edition, runs from August 19 to 23, 2025, attracting up to 20,000 visitors. It features poetry readings, performances, walks in the calanchi (clay hills), and reflections on themes like Palestinian poetry, sacred queer thought, and love. Notable participants include Rocco Papaleo, Gloria Campaner, Nichi Vendola, Silvia Camporesi, Domenico Iannacone, Paolo Pileri, Melina Mulas, Alessandro Treves, Peppe Voltarelli, and Peppe Leone. The festival is free and held without stages, in a town with fewer than 1,000 residents but five exhibition spaces. Aliano was selected as a finalist for Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2027 with its project "Terra dell'Altrove." Arminio describes the festival as a "collective rite" and a place to realize "that there are the living." The event has fostered economic and cultural dynamism, reconciling the community with its identity.