September 18 · Opening evening
Ascanio Celestini
An encounter with Ascanio Celestini at Teatro al Castello in Bovalino Superiore, starting from the themes of Poveri cristi.
A growing Festival · Third edition 2026
Festival del Pensiero Cristallino
Culture, identity and thought in Riviera Cristallina.
September 18, 19 and 20, 2026
Free admission
Three evenings confirmed
Festival del Pensiero Cristallino returns to Riviera Cristallina with three confirmed evenings: Ascanio Celestini’s civic storytelling, an evening of theatre, music and humanistic-existential thought at Mariciò, and the closing conversation with Federico Quaranta in Staiti.
Registration open · free admission while places last.
September 19 · Second evening
Teatro · Musica · Pensiero Umanistico
Marina Baldi introduces Gruppo Spontaneo, Paolo Sofia and Sefora Rosa at Mariciò.
September 20 · Closing evening
Federico Quaranta
Closing conversation in Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria in Staiti.
DatesSeptember 18, 19, 20, 2026
AdmissionFree while seats last
StatusThree evenings confirmed
The 2026 edition
After the birth of the format in 2024 and its consolidation in 2025, the Festival continues its path as a stable cultural space in Riviera Cristallina.
Ascanio Celestini
An encounter with Ascanio Celestini, between storytelling and dialogue with the audience, starting from Poveri cristi: peripheries, marginality, invisible people and human dignity.
Teatro · Musica · Pensiero Umanistico
Marina Baldi introduces an evening of theatre, music and humanistic-existential thought, dedicated to identity, freedom, fragility, relationships, violence against women and the search for meaning. With Gruppo Spontaneo, Paolo Sofia and Sefora Rosa.
Federico Quaranta
“The places that change us. And that we change”: a cultural and personal conversation with Federico Quaranta about landscape, memory, belonging, identity, community and the possibility of creating development without turning places into products.
September 18, 2026 · Opening evening
Ascanio Celestini at Teatro al Castello
The first day brings together Ascanio Celestini’s storytelling and Teatro al Castello in Bovalino Superiore: guest and venue belong to the same story.
Guest
Ascanio Celestini opens the 2026 Festival
With his narrative theatre and his ability to tell stories of human peripheries, collective memory and the lives of those left at the margins, Ascanio Celestini is one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary Italian culture.
Author, actor and director, his work crosses memory, marginality, civic speech and popular storytelling.
On September 18, 2026 he will open the third edition of Festival del Pensiero Cristallino at Teatro al Castello in Bovalino Superiore. It will be a public conversation, combining storytelling and dialogue with the audience, starting from the themes of Poveri cristi: peripheries, marginality, invisible people and human dignity.
Venue
Teatro al Castello in Bovalino Superiore
The venue is not a backdrop. It is part of the story. On September 18, the stone seating and the castle of Bovalino Superiore will host the public conversation with Ascanio Celestini, held in collaboration with the Municipality of Bovalino.
September 19, 2026 · Second evening
Theatre, music and humanistic thought at Mariciò
The second day brings the Festival to the sea: Marina Baldi introduces a choral evening where theatrical performance, music and convivial space become one environment for encounter.
Guests and contents
Teatro · Musica · Pensiero Umanistico
Introducing the evening
Marina Baldi
Forensic geneticist, consultant in some of Italy’s major judicial cases and IPUE lecturer.
On September 19 the Festival proposes an evening of theatre, music and humanistic-existential thought, moving through identity, freedom, fragility, relationships, violence against women and the search for meaning.
Marina Baldi will introduce Gruppo Spontaneo’s theatrical performance, dedicated to violence against women. Paolo Sofia and Sefora Rosa will then develop the same themes through a shared musical moment: an evening built as a space for listening, presence and participation.
- September 19, 2026 · 8:00 pm
- Introduction · Marina Baldi
- Theatrical performance · Gruppo Spontaneo
- Musical moment · Paolo Sofia & Sefora Rosa
- Mariciò · Marina di Gioiosa Ionica
- Free admission · Mandatory registration
Venue
Mariciò, Marina di Gioiosa Ionica
On September 19 the Festival moves to the seafront, into the spaces of Mariciò on Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo in Marina di Gioiosa Ionica. A welcoming and convivial venue, chosen to host an evening where theatre, music and words build a direct dialogue with the audience.
Mariciò
Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo · Marina di Gioiosa Ionica (RC) · Tel. 329 291 2496
September 20, 2026 · Closing evening
Federico Quaranta in Staiti
The third day closes the Festival in an identity-rich village: the dialogue on places that change us finds its home in Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria.
Guest
Federico Quaranta closes the 2026 Festival
Federico Quaranta has travelled through and narrated many Italian territories, bringing places, landscapes, local knowledge and communities to a broad audience.
On September 20 at 7:00 pm, Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria in Staiti will host the Festival’s closing conversation, held with the collaboration of the Municipality of Staiti.
“The places that change us. And that we change” will explore memory, belonging, identity and the responsibility of telling and transforming territories without reducing them to products.
- September 20, 2026 · 7:00 pm
- Closing conversation
- Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria · Staiti
- Free admission · Mandatory registration
Venue
Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria in Staiti
Here too, the venue is not a frame. It is a living part of the evening’s theme. On September 20, Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria in Staiti will host the conversation with Federico Quaranta, in dialogue with a village that preserves memory, landscape and community.
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Staiti photos: Jacopo Werther, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons.
Manifesto
A Festival created to make room for thought
Festival del Pensiero Cristallino was created to open a meeting space between ideas, people and territory: a real and symbolic place where culture, psychology, identity, community and territorial development can enter into dialogue.
It is not an isolated event, but a permanent cultural project: an appointment that grows over time and contributes to the deeper narrative of Riviera Cristallina.
Culture is one of Riviera Cristallina’s driving forces, together with nature, tourism, wellbeing, food and wine, sport and innovation. The Festival places words, listening, existential health, the memory of places and the possibility of thinking together about the future of the territory at the center.
A cultural project promoted by IPUE, Istituto di Psicologia Umanistica Esistenziale “Luigi De Marchi”, and Riviera Cristallina.
A growing path
The 2026 page preserves the story of previous editions, because the Festival was born as a stable and already rooted cultural asset.
2024 · The beginning
Open 2024 poster
July 22-28: myth, migration and personal identity
The first edition was born as part of a wider project to enhance Riviera Cristallina: tourism and psycho-physical wellbeing entered into dialogue with the rediscovery of roots.
2025 · Consolidation
Open 2025 poster
Three evenings to rediscover meaning, roots and vision
The second edition, from September 5 to 7, 2025, consolidated the Festival as a widespread appointment across wellbeing, awareness and identity in Riviera Cristallina.
2026 · The new edition
Open 2026 poster
Three evenings, three languages of thought
The third edition, on September 18, 19 and 20, 2026, moves through three places and three languages: civic storytelling, theatre and music, and a conversation on territory.
Free admission
The Festival is free
All Festival del Pensiero Cristallino appointments are free admission, while seats last.
Tourism packages connected to the Festival weekend do not sell admission to the meetings. They offer accommodation services, experiences in the territory, daytime activities, possible tastings, local assistance and evening transfers to the events.
Experience the Festival in Riviera Cristallina
For guests arriving from outside the area, Riviera Cristallina offers stay experiences designed to enjoy the Festival weekend in a complete way. The Festival remains free: packages include tourism services, not admission to the appointments.
Media and press review
Materials, press releases and press content dedicated to Festival del Pensiero Cristallino.
Ascanio Celestini · Venue confirmed
The opening evening will take place at Teatro al Castello in Bovalino Superiore.
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Teatro · Musica · Pensiero Umanistico
The second evening will take place at Mariciò with Marina Baldi, Gruppo Spontaneo, Paolo Sofia and Sefora Rosa.
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Federico Quaranta · Closing evening
The closing evening will take place in Piazza Santa Maria della Vittoria in Staiti.
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2026 poster
The general poster of the third edition with the three confirmed evenings.
Open PDF
Festival dossier
A summary document with the history, identity and development of the Festival.
Open the dossier
2024 poster
The first edition of the Festival, from July 22 to 28.
Open PDF
2025 poster
Second edition: three evenings to rediscover meaning, roots and vision.
Open poster
Press Room
Riviera Cristallina’s general press room also includes Festival materials.
Open Press RoomPart of the Riviera Cristallina ecosystem
Festival del Pensiero Cristallino is part of an ecosystem that brings together culture, territory, tourism, innovation and community within a shared development vision.
Riviera Cristallina
The territorial and cultural project.
Open the siteAI Travel Planner
Packages, experiences and travel tools.
Open the plannerWeb Experience
Explore Riviera Cristallina with the interactive map, points of interest and territorial content connected to the Festival experience.
Explore RivieraPress Room
Press materials and institutional updates.
Open Press RoomContacts and governance
Institutional references for the project.
Open contacts