A growing Festival · Third edition 2026
Culture, identity and thought in Riviera Cristallina.
Festival del Pensiero Cristallino returns to Riviera Cristallina with its third edition: three days dedicated to words, dialogue, awareness, the culture of places and community.
Program, venues and times will be updated progressively.
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.
A public conversation with Ascanio Celestini, combining storytelling and dialogue with the audience, starting from Poveri cristi: peripheries, marginality, invisible people and human dignity. Admission will be free, with mandatory registration; registration will open soon.
New Festival protagonists will be announced in the coming weeks.
New Festival protagonists will be announced in the coming weeks.
The opening evening venue
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.
First confirmed guest
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.
Manifesto
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.
The 2026 page preserves the story of previous editions, because the Festival was born as a stable and already rooted cultural asset.
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.
The second edition, from September 5 to 7, 2025, consolidated the Festival as a widespread appointment across wellbeing, awareness and identity in Riviera Cristallina.
In 2026 the Festival reaches its third edition, scheduled for September 18, 19 and 20. The first confirmed guest is Ascanio Celestini, who will open the Festival with a meeting dedicated to the book Poveri cristi.
Free admission
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.
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.
Materials, press releases and press content dedicated to Festival del Pensiero Cristallino.
A summary document with the history, identity and development of the Festival.
Open the dossier
The opening evening will take place at Teatro al Castello in Bovalino Superiore.
Open the graphic
The first edition of the Festival, from July 22 to 28.
Open PDF
Second edition: three evenings to rediscover meaning, roots and vision.
Open poster
Riviera Cristallina’s general press room also includes Festival materials.
Open Press RoomFestival del Pensiero Cristallino is part of an ecosystem that brings together culture, territory, tourism, innovation and community within a shared development vision.
The territorial and cultural project.
Open the sitePackages, experiences and travel tools.
Open the plannerExplore Riviera Cristallina with the interactive map, points of interest and territorial content connected to the Festival experience.
Explore RivieraPress materials and institutional updates.
Open Press RoomInstitutional references for the project.
Open contacts