Milan Goes Eurosonic

Barley Arts promoter Marco Ercolani is so pleased about the first edition of the company’s Live Across Festival, it seems he can’t wait a year to do another one.

Ercolani said Holland’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag showcase festival – where company chief Claudio Trotta is a regular visitor – was an inspiration for the Milan event, and he will be doing another in May.

“We don’t want to wait 12 months to do another and May could be an even better time as there should be more bands available,” Ercolani explained. “In September it’s also a little harder to find the acts as the festivals are finishing and the autumn touring has hardly started.”

Taking the Dutch event as a model, Ercolani chose to do Live Across (Sept. 12-14) in the eastern part of Milan. The venues Rolling Stone, in which he reduced the capacity to 800, the 600-capacity Magazzini Generali, 400-capacity La Salumeria della Musica and the 200-capacity La Casa 139 are all within walking distance of each other.

He worked on the event with Caterina Caselli, the well-known Italian talent scout who discovered such acts as Andrea Bocelli and the band Negramano, which attracted 40,000 people to a Barley Arts-promoted show at the city’s San Siro Stadium in May.

It was the first time an Italian band has played the soccer stadium, although the country’s biggest solo stars – such as Vasco Rossi and Ligabue – have.

Although most of the 35 acts at Live Across were from Italy, Swedish rock acts Mustach and The Haunted, the U.K.’s Last Man Standing, Depedro from Spain, and Finland’s much-touted Von Hetrtzen Brothers were among the international talent.