FerragOstia Antica 2024

The Ferragogstia Antica 2024 event returns for the eighth edition, as part of the Roman Summer, to the Renaissance Village of Ostia Antica, to enhance the extraordinary historical, archaeological and landscape riches of the X Municipality, with free events including shows, music, dance, circus-theatre, street art and guided tours.

The guided tours with performances begin on 8 and 9 August, at 5 and 6.30 pm, with the extraordinary opening of Tor Boacciana, the medieval tower built on the ancient lighthouse of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber. This event entitled The tower and its river allows you to admire this extraordinary monument, whose upper part dates back to the 12th century and which probably corresponds to the "turris pulcherrima sed solitaria" sighted by Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade in 1190. The visit, led by a qualified tour guide, is enriched by a performance by two actors on the history of the site, for a unique experience.

On 10 and 11 August, at 5 and 6.30 pm, there is the event The walls tell!: starting from the modern Ravennati Park, a tourist guide and two actors take us to discover ancient traces of roads, tombs and aqueducts, hidden for centuries under the Renaissance town, going from the mausoleum, recently discovered outside the castle moat, to the remains of the aqueduct that supplied the ancient city of Ostia.

The events at the Borgo instead begin on August 14th at 9pm with Shipwrecked for work, a street art show and new circus organized by Los Filonautas. This circus performance was born from the meeting between two extraordinary tightrope walkers, Valentin "The Astronaut" and Soledad Prieto, alias "Petrovska", who perform on a completely exceptional stage like a thin steel cable suspended six feet from ground, create an exceptional theatrical space that mixes expressive, circus, acrobatic, musical and theatrical techniques.

Also on August 14th we continue at 10pm with Trash and Cleaners, a show by Piero Ricciardi and Enrico Moroni that blends theater and music. Tom and Toni, long-time colleagues at the cleaning company Dubidù Service, have developed such a deep mutual understanding that a look, a gesture or a murmured word is enough to coordinate perfectly: between buckets and boxes, funny anecdotes and tricks to avoid getting too tired , the protagonists of this show which combines physical theatre, pantomime, clowning and live music, drag the audience into a crescendo of overwhelming rhythm.

On August 15th, at 9pm, it's the turn of Soul of Nature curated by Artemakìa, an acrobatic fable, a mix of wonder and acrobatics, poetry and virtuosity written and directed by Milo Scotton. This show, which addresses relevant environmental issues with humor and sagacity, follows the adventures of the explorer Mooz, who, thanks to a compelling narrative, deals with topics such as the abandonment of waste in nature, the incarceration of animals and the destruction of beauty due to human selfishness.

The mid-August evening continues at 10pm with the African dances of the Konkoba group, an exceptional ensemble of percussion, melodies, dances and rhythms from West Africa. The heart of the show is the djembe, the king of drums, accompanied by traditional bass drums such as the doun doun, the samban and the kenkeni, alternating with the intense sounds of the sabar, the typical Senegalese drum that invites you to dance. Konkoba, the name of the band, means "the farmers" in the Malinke language and wants to make traditional African music known in Western countries by spreading the extraordinary cultural richness of this continent.

FerragOstia Antica 2024 ends on August 16th with a day entirely dedicated to dance. The evening begins at 9.00 pm with the "So Art" company, which presents So you Dance: a series of contemporary dance performances performed by young artists who stage the choreographies of Spuck, Acqua Salata, Falena and Per Ora.                                                                                    

Outdoor Dance Floor by Salvo Lombardo follows at 10pm, a performance conceived to bring dances into unconventional spaces, an act of pure sharing, sociality and aggregation of bodies. Salvo Lombardo and Daria Greco thus create choreographies based on imitable movement sequences, accompanied by a multimedia live set made up of musical, sound and visual pulsations curated by Federico Scettri. After the final performance, the audience is invited to take part in the dance experiment in person by adopting new relational dynamics through dance.

Ferragogistia is a project conceived by Affabulazione, promoted by Roma Capitale - Department of Culture, winner of the biennial Public Notice "Estate Romana 2023-2024" curated by the Cultural Activities Department, and is created in collaboration with SIAE.