On June 29th and 30th took place the 4th edition of the Sicily Web Fest, for the first time in Gibellina in partnership with the Scirocco Wine Fest. Would you like to know how it was? Just read the article with an interview with the SWF founder, Riccardo Cannella.
A week ago, I came back from the fourth edition of the Sicily Web Fest (SWF). This is the only festival I’ve attended since the beginning, since that so far away 2015, when took place the first SWF. A lot of things changed, starting from the location. For this 2018 edition, the festival moved from the “historical” venue of Ustica to Gibellina. For all the habitual attendees, this was a huge change: Ustica, in the previous three years, was the perfect setting for a homey and cosy but professional festival, where the creators could easily hang out together, discuss, compare experiences… In a few words: being a community.
The Sicily Web Fest always has had the power of keeping this web series community together, giving us the precious opportunity to be united for almost three days attending panels, screenings and events, focusing the attention on the authors and their works, while enjoying one of the most beautiful location ever. All this was possible thanks to the Sicily Web Fest staff and also thanks to the fact that the festival used to take place on an island that has an area of just 8,65 square kilometres.
So, how was in the new venue of Gibellina? Did it lose its power of keeping the community together? Well, not at all. It was less easy, but they made it.
Sicily Web Fest 2018 – visiting the Tenute Orestiadi
There were other two changes: this year edition last only one day and a half (Friday evening and the entire day of Saturday) and it was “inside” the Scirocco Wine Fest, a food and wine event, organized by Tenute Orestiadi, at its second edition with the purpose of promoting the traditions of all those amazing countries through which the Sirocco wind blows.
It was a new experience for the Sicily Web Fest; the event was into another one with a different topic, but with a shared aim: to promote the Sicilian territory.
And here it is the common wire that tied together the Sicily Web Fest and the Scirocco Wine Fest in Gibellina; as the wine festival promotes the cultures of the Mediterranean Sea in a town that has a unique history of destruction and rebirth, the web festival brings to Sicily (for the 4th time) the digital series culture, with its creative soul of innovation, coming from all over the world.
The result? An event that promotes the talent of digital creators on a side, the marvellous Sicilian reality on the other and makes them perfectly fit together.
Gibellina was a different and fascinating stage, in which the festival offered interesting conferences about the role of cinema and TV digital series and about the future of this so rich and engaging format. There was also a lot of wine, thanks to the Scirocco Wine Fest and, maybe because of the wine, maybe because festivals have the power of make authors happy, there were a lot, a lot of smiles. “You put a smile on people faces, Riccardo”, said Anne Santa Maria (produce of the digital series Osmosis and advisor at the Webfest Berlin) to the founder of the Sicily Web Fest.
So, in order to tell you the spirit of this different Sicily Web Fest, I decided to interview Riccardo Cannella, founder and director of the Sicily Web Fest. Who better than him can explain how was this edition? No one! Click the “next page” button to read more.
