THE DELEGATION OF EMILIA-ROMAGNA AT ESNS 2025

RETROPOP LIVE | acieloaperto – Cesena (Festival)
Delegate: Piero Mantengoli
Piero Mantengoli was born in 1979 in Cesena, the city where he grew up and still lives. He graduated in economics and has a great passion for music. He began his career as a DJ and party planner in the clubs of the coastal areas of Romagna, where he also started his first experiences in concert organization and promotion.
In 2013, he became one of the founders of Retro Pop Live, a cultural association based in Cesena, where he holds the position of artistic director. Through this role, he is involved in organizing events in Romagna, mainly in the field of live music. In the same year, he contributed to the creation of the summer music festival acieloaperto, now in its thirteenth edition. The festival’s main goal is to host concerts by both established and emerging artists in venues of great historical and cultural significance.
In 2020, during the pandemic, he was one of the creators of Solido, a network project involving three Emilia-Romagna festivals: acieloaperto, Ferrara Sotto le Stelle, and Arti Vive di Soliera. In 2023, Solido became a fully-fledged mini-festival offering showcases, talks, and live performances.
As well as his passion and respect for music, the core values that guide his work within the Retro Pop Live association are inclusivity, gender equality, digital culture, and a commitment to green culture.

ARCI EMILIA-ROMAGNA APS | SUNER – Bologna (Live clubs, Festival)
Delegate: Marco Pignatiello
Marco is a qualified cultural operator working for ARCI, the main Italian non-profit network that promotes and facilitates universal access to culture – it counts 4000 affiliated associations and more than one million members. Marco is engaged into designing and implementing cultural projects and festivals, he creates connections and establishes partnerships with clubs and cultural organisations within the urban network of Bologna, he is a member of the National Committee for Culture of ARCI.
Since 2019, he has managed the project SUNER, a well-known festival that involves 24 ARCI music clubs in Emilia-Romagna.
He coordinates the Montagnola Republic Festival, which brings in Bologna more than 80 live music concerts yearly, from April to October.
He is the artistic director of the Concerto del Primo Maggio in Bologna, a music event of regional relevance which is organised on the 1st of May each year. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Bologna City Council Night Advisory Commission.

BRONSON | Ravenna (Live club, Festivals, Label)
Delegate: Chris Angiolini
Christopher Angiolini lives and works in Ravenna. Artistic director, promoter, producer, dj, music addicted, always exploring the underground music scene. In 2003 he founded Bronson Produzioni and began to think of Ravenna as a new stage in the world indie-rock circuit, opening the legendary Hana-Bi on the beach and Bronson Club in town. He’s the creator behind international Boutique Festivals such as Transmissions and Beaches Brew. In 2011 he began working on the Bronson Recordings label project which in a few years became an international point of reference by publishing releases by artists such as Live Skull, Micah P Hinson, Martin Bisi or Dirty Beaches. He is now focused in scouting and managing new artists (Leatherette, R.YF., Mondaze among the others). From 2021 he becomes curator of the musical program at the theatre / performing arts festival of Santarcangelo. He’s resident dj at Radio Raheem with a program called Tales from The Red Desert.

ESTRAGON – Bologna (Live club, festivals)
Delegates: Katia Giampaolo e Lele Roveri

Katia Giampaolo, Estragon Director
Katia proudly manages the band JoyCut, who have toured extensively across North America, Europe and Asia. Katia is director of Bologna’s famous Estragon club and BOtanique Festival. Estragon is the Italian arm of the Europavox Project. Katia is chair of MMF Italy. She has been a jury member of Music Moves Europe Talent Awards between 2019 and 2021. She is a music lover, a sportswoman and a dreamer. Her favorite quote is as follows: I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love.
(Jonathan Safran Foer)

Lele Roveri, Estragon President
Manuele Roveri, renamed “Lele” from everyone, is president of Coop Estragon and founder of Estragon Club in 1992. In more than 30 years of cultural activity he has always held the role of artistic director of the club and over the years has created important international festivals: DiMondi Festival (from 2022) in Bologna,  Irlanda in Festa (from 2006), the most important event of Irish culture in Europe, held simultaneously in 10 Italian cities.
Since the early 2000s he has regularly participated in the main international music fairs and main world music festival and organizes and produces world tour for Italian bands.
In the two-year period 2013/2014 he was artistic director of Bologna Fiere.
Since 2020 he has been a founding member and member of the board of PER – Promoter Emilia Romagna, the association that brings together the main cultural operators of live music in the region.

EUFONICA BY BOLOGNAFIERE | GUITAR SHOW – Bologna (Music fair)
Delegate: Barbara Laurini
Bologna, UNESCO Creative City of Music, presents three important events in the sector: Eufonica and Guitar Show that will animate pavilions 31, 32 and 33 of BolognaFiere on the weekend of 10 and 11 May and MEI – Meeting delle Etichette Indipendenti.
Eufonica is an international event that aims to shorten the distance between the world of education and that of the music market, promoting the school-work transition and acting as a point of reference for professional orientation in the sector. The third edition of Eufonica will host a special area curated by Kemuzike, a brand designed to connect promoters, record labels, organizers and professionals, in a place where musical creativity meets business. An event that aims to promote meetings and debates between training bodies, institutions, entrepreneurs and professionals in the music sector.
From 2025, in conjunction with Eufonica, the Guitar Show will take place. Among the largest European events dedicated to the world of six strings, it is a market exhibition open to industry, distribution, artisans, makers, luthiers, modders, shops, private individuals and collectors, with a focus on guitars, basses, amplification and effects.
MEI – Meeting delle Etichette Indipendenti represents an important Italian independent music event, now in its thirtieth edition. The main objective is to promote artists not tied to the market laws of the majors and to enhance local musical cultures.

FERRARA SOTTO LE STELLE | Ferrara (Festival)
Delegate: Mattia Antico
Mattia Antico is the president of the Ferrara Sotto le Stelle Festival, a music event born within the Arci network. For nearly thirty years, the festival has brought internationally renowned artists such as Bob Dylan, Sigur Rós, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, and The National to the city of Ferrara.
The festival combines artistic exploration with the promotion of the local territory, creating a deep connection between music, culture, and urban spaces.
An active member of the Arci Association, Mattia focuses on cultural project development and creating initiatives that promote inclusion and sustainability.
Participating in Eurosonic provides an opportunity to strengthen international connections and support emerging talents in the music scene.

GRANDE EVENTO SRSL | ARV MUSIC – Piacenza (Festival, Booking, Label)
Delegate: Giovanni Amighetti
Giovanni Amighetti, born in 1971 in Parma, Italy, is an acclaimed music producer known for blending world music with contemporary and multimedia elements.
He has collaborated with global world music artists like Ayub Ogada, Mari Boine, David Rhodes, Fred Frith, Guo Yue, Wu Fei, and many others, producing notable works such as No, Russia Cannot Be Perceived by Wit (Terem Quartet) and Mississippi to Sahara (Faris Amine).
Amighetti’s innovative productions bridge cultural traditions, often integrating interactive digital media into his projects.
He represents Moreno Il Biondo and his recording project Viaggio nella musica popolare.

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC AND ARTS – Carpi (Booking)
Delegate: Rita Zappador
International Music and Arts was founded in 1988 by classical musicians, including Rita, all friends. They started the company as italian agents and managers in the area of classic artistic management and classic cultural event promotion as she has herself a degree in classical piano and Italian literature. She then started an international dept with non classical artists, and she has worked with some of the most significant artists of our time, such as Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Diamanda Galas, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Laurie Anderson, Ornette Coleman, David Byrne, Anohni (fka Antony and the Johnsons), Joan as Policewoman, Asaf Avidan, Sinead O’Connor, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Kronos Quartet and many others.
Rita usually works with all classical and non classical institutions all over Europe and the world, covering every segment of the music business: jazz clubs and festivals, rock presenters, electronic festivals, public institutions and classical opera houses and orchestras.
Her company has 5 departments: classical music, dance, theatre, local artists, export/international artists.
They have a very effective promo division made by a social media manager, a press office, a marketing specialist for the widest degree of service on branding growth of all our artists.

KEEPON LIVE – Ferrara (Trade Association of Italian Live Clubs and Festivals)
Delegates: Federico Rasetti e Gaianè Keworkian

Raised behind concert stages (and in front of plates of cappelletti – a typical pasta dish from Ferrara), Federico Rasetti is a European-certified Sustainability Manager specializing in social and cultural impact. He is the Director of KeepOn LIVE, Italy’s grassroots music association, and Co-President of Live DMA, Europe’s live music network. Federico began his career booking for Italian agencies and founded a label supporting emerging artists.
With two executive master’s degrees in meeting management and sustainability, plus a business development course at Bocconi University, he bridges management expertise with cultural innovation. His experience with both major corporations, like Unipolis Foundation, and smaller organizations gives him a unique perspective on adapting economic systems to the live music sector.

Gaianè Kevorkian is a freelance project manager for cultural productions. During her bachelor degree in Musicology, in Cremona – University of Pavia, she experimented and deepened this passion collaborating with diverse projects and no-profit organisations. She co-funded La Città della Canzone, a workshop for young songwriters based on an innovative educational format throughout collective creative process. Her interest in cultural production got wider through collaborations with diverse institutions that promote social projects for migration processes. She got a certificate as social facilitator thanks to the MARS – Music & Resilience Training Course, cofunded by Erasmus +. This training led to the creation of two research projects brought on in the asylum seeker centre of Cremona and two publications. Lately she got closer to the work of national and international cultural networks, thanks to the Fellowship Program promoted by European Music Council, to which she participated in 2018-2020. At the end of this experience she started woking with KeepOn Live and continued working for cultural association and festivals in production and artistic direction.

LOCOMOTIV – Bologna (Live club, Festival, Label)
Delegate: Giovanni Gandolfi
Radio host since 1993, in 1997 he started working as a DJ and as a promoter at Covo Club in Bologna through 2007. In 2001 he founded the record label Unhip Records (2001-2014). In 2007 he joined the ranks of the newborn Locomotiv Club in Bologna, of which he is head promoter. The programming is focused on having some of the best acts touring Europe but also being a breeding ground for up-and-coming young artists, with no boundaries in terms of genre smoothly going across world music, punk, rock, hip-hop, experimental, pop, electronic and jazz. Over the years Locomotiv has organized shows in theaters, bigger venues, basketball arenas, as well as outdoor summer festivals in various locations including a pretty original in-house format named Tutto Molto Bello which consists in a 4-stages 3-days music festival that also involves a five-a-side football tournament for independent labels coming from all over. The yearly Express festival features the best international acts. It has been recently implemented an in-house professional recording studio and a video control room for streaming and editing, to expand services to the local music scene but also to be able to share contents to a wider audience and experiment with new technologies and medias. In 2020 a new record label, Locomotiv Records, started releasing new and exciting music of bands like I Hate My village of which he is currently the band’s manager.

OZONO FACTORY – Bologna (Live club, Festival, Produzione)
Delegate: Luca Li Voti
Ozono Factory Aps was founded in Bologna in 2015 with the aim of enhancing diversity and encouraging the mixing of artistic languages; it also supports creativity through cultural experimentation, inclusion and social innovation. Since 2015, Ozono Factory has managed the live club Binario69 where it has organised over 100 concerts a year.
From 2018 to 2021, it organised the Montagnola Republic festival in the homonymous park in Bologna, implementing an urban and cultural regeneration through free concerts and events of national and international importance. From 2023, the festival will move to another city park that requires a regenerative path, from which it takes the name Comini Espress: a cultural centre that is always active with live DJ sets, film screenings, book presentations and children’s shows.
Since 2020 he has managed the Il Poggiolo Rifugio Re_Esistente structure within the historic park of Monte Sole where he collaborates with institutional entities by organizing cultural events, guided tours, festivals, nature trails, summer camps, theaters, exhibitions and much more.
Luca Li Voti has been the creative director of Ozono Factory Aps since 2022 and follows in particular the development of Binario69, Comini Espress and Lupo Festival. Musician and sound engineer since 2011, he has dedicated himself to organizing Festivals and events with live and multi-performance programming. Since 2014 he has started collaborating with KeepOn LIVE – Live Club/Italian Festival category association – where today he coordinates the network of KeepOn Festival Experience Festivals.

PANICO CONCERTI – Bologna (Booking)
Delegates: Matilde Cavalli, Salvatore Cataudella, Giuseppe Cernera
Panico Concerti is a dynamic Italian booking and management agency, representing a wide range of forward-thinking artists across various genres. With a focus on innovation and artistic excellence, Panico Concerti has established itself as a key player in the music industry. The agency provides tailored services to foster the growth of emerging talents and established acts alike, supporting their journey from local stages to international platforms while staying true to each artist’s unique vision.

SHAPE | ROBOT FESTIVAL | GEMINI FESTIVAL – Bologna (Festivals)
Delegate: Marco Ligurgo
An economics graduate, after a long and prolific career as a producer and DJ around Europe, in 2002 he was among the founders of Shape, of which he is the artistic director and administrator. First the experience in the club where, with the ‘Playhouse’ night at Kindergarten, he became a point of reference for the minimal techno scene, then the birth of ROBOT Festival and its broader and more mature artistic direction of all-round electronic music, then Gemini Festival with more pop and transversal sounds. The programmes he puts on are the fruit of a search for a balance between established and emerging artistsə, international profiles and attention to the national scene. In addition to those in Bologna, there are many international commissions – including ROBOT in Buenos Aires, Unesco Music Days in Utrecht and Glasgow, Fifty Lab in Brussels – and national ones – including New Year’s Eve in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Festivalle in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento and Linecheck in Milan. Since 2020, he has also been artistic director of the urban regeneration district DumBO in Bologna.