Viareggio Carnival 2024: Confetti in their blood
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Listen to Viareggio Carnival 2024: Confetti in their blood
The trees are heavy with oranges in Viareggio, flags with the red and white harlequin mascot ‘Burlamacco’ are flying from the windows, and the sweet fried dough chiacchiere are in the pastry shops. There’s excitement in the air!
From September through March the Viareggio Citta di Carnivale is a hub of energy, and draws on boat-making skills from Viareggio, and artistic creativity from Pietrasanta.
In 2023 we talked to artists and artisans behind the scenes about the enormous floats and masquerades they create with newspaper and mechanical puppetry.
But between those artists creating, and the audience watching, there’s another community - hundreds of volunteers (or 'figurants') who rehearse - rain or shine, each weekend - and form the colourful dancing troupes in front of the floats.
So for Carnival 2023 we came back, to find out why these volunteers venture out on cold winter days, and what it means to them to be a part of a company?
We're also excited to announce our first collaboration with Celia & Enzo of Piazza Talk Lucca - a popular YouTube channel sharing how life is in Lucca, and in the Tuscan hills. Check out their experience volunteering behind the scenes at this year's carnival.
Listen in to discover more about the winter world of Viareggio and how the community gets involved.
Episode 57 – Viareggio Carnival 2024: Confetti in their blood
As always, you can see photos that accompany our episodes on our website materiallyspeaking.com, on Instagram, and on YouTube.
Enjoy listening. Sarah Monk producer, Materially Speaking