For five nights in late February the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo hosts a song contest that Italy watches the way other countries watch a cup final. Around thirty songs compete, each performed on consecutive evenings, judged by a mixture of jury and public vote, and the winner traditionally takes Italy's place at Eurovision — the contest Sanremo itself inspired in 1956.
It has run since 1951 and has outlived every format it helped create. Careers are made in it; the week's news agenda belongs to it.
The attendance figure is a trap. The Ariston seats roughly 2,000 people. The broadcast audience runs to tens of millions, and that is the number usually quoted. They are not the same quantity and we record neither as an attendance.
Sanremo is a small Ligurian resort of 55,000. For festival week its hotels, and those along the coast towards Imperia and the French border, are committed well in advance.
PlanningA late-February window announced the previous autumn; the town is fully committed months ahead.