For its 2023 edition, Limbo Festival at Il Ciocco keeps up experimental electronic performances alternating with yoga and food sessions on the Tuscan area of Garfagnana
Barga and La Garfagnana, the location of the festival in the Tuscany
Forty kilometers from Lucca and sixty from Forte dei Marmi, there’s a part of Tuscany that stays out of touristic routes. It’s an area that lies between the Apuan Alps and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. Here, there’s water – river Serchio flows through it – and there are woods. Towns pop up here and there. Barga, with roughly nine-thousand inhabitants, is the biggest one. This place is known as La Garfagnana. It still mostly relies on agricultural and enogastronomic traditions to sustain its economy. Here, at Castelvecchio Pascoli – a fraction of Barga – Limbo Festival will take place from the 7th to the 9th of July 2023, hosted by ‘Il Ciocco’ resort.
Limbo Festival – a boutique festival
The event wants to recreate a tribe-like atmosphere. Organizers describe it as a ‘boutique festival’. In festival culture the term is still new. Dj Lele Sacchi, in his book Club Confidential, defined boutique festivals as small gatherings, focused on quality experiences rather than over the top productions. It applies to the musical line up – usually made of niche-artists – and to the overall mood of the event.
Limbo Festival, the 2023 music lineup
Limbo’s selection of artists depicts the intent to be recognized as a boutique festival. It isn’t a regular techno party. It isn’t dark, but colorful and festive. DJs represent a spectrum of experimental electronic music substyles, better known by connoisseurs than by the general public.
For the 2023 edition, sunsets and nights of the festival will be accompanied by DJ sets by Gerd Janson, Roman Flugel, Daniele Baldelli, Luca Bacchetti, Eduardo Castillo, Crussen and MLiR and live by Gold Panda and Opole. Their performances will be followed by those of the L. Boccherini Conservatory, point of reference within the musical world of Lucca, with surprise pop-up concerts.
The lineup will also present the live performance of Leo D’Anguilla, percussionist, drummer and producer who has worked with Italian singers such as Celentano, Elisa, Marco Mengoni, Jovanotti, Tiziano Ferro. At Limbo Festival he will return to his origins, rooted in reggae and electronics, performing with his latest project DubLoops, a Live Dub Solo with a radical Anglo-Jamaican atmosphere.
Cosmic Bambino, Markeno, Vandana Hart, Vitamina Jeans will perform, as well as The Aristodemos and Zam Dembélé and Mozait.
Talks, masterclasses, and performances planned for the 2023 edition of Limbo Festival
‘A human future’ is the festival’s motto for this year’s edition. Limbo is an experience that delivers music, food and wine tastings, exhibitions, talks, masterclasses, bike rides, yoga classes, excursions, trips to the vineyards and villages of Garfagnana.
Limbo Festival will start its program on the morning of July 7 with a yoga session by Alessia Bioagiotti at the Limbo Camp, or, for the more adventurous, with a hiking or biking session. After the opening of the ‘Nest’, the main area of the festival, from the afternoon, the event will see a series of talks and masterclasses happening, with international guests taking place at the Sacbe Tent.
The heading will be Maike Gabriela, Spanish native with German origins, consultant of Human Design and founder of ‘Transformational Human Design™’ method. The talk session will continue with Vandana Hart, creator and leader of the global movement ‘We Speak Dance’, and Yafit & Tyler with ‘Sound activation, Goldfish medicine pop up and art’.
Jill Goldman, Los Angeles-based activist, director and artist whose work incorporates dance, performance, photography, film and video, with ‘Disentanglement Re-Embodiment’ will invite participants to dissolve the ties of oppression and to imagine a reincarnated self.
‘A human future’ at Limbo: nature, workshops, yoga, and food
From partying to relax, the second day at Limbo will involve yoga and meditation lovers. Alessia Biagiotti will involve the guests in an Akhanda Yoga session, followed by the Nafa Yoga with Franchini at the Sacbe Tent. A ‘Mindfulness Meditation’ with Nina Bogdan will close the morning plan.
Limbo Festival also digs into Tuscany’s gastronomic culture. At the Taverna dello Scoiattolo, chef Aurelio Barattini, owner of the renowned ‘Antica Locanda’ in Sesto (LU), will hold a cooking class. The inn has been the beating heart and soul of the Barattini family for more than a century, together with the homonymous farm, known locally as ‘La Maolina’.
Music on the Main Stage will go on for the whole night, with DJ sets by Eduardo Castillo, Roman Fluegel, Gerd Janson, Luca Bacchetti, and Gold Panda, until sunset.
The last day of the event, on Sunday, will start slowly, with a mid-day focus on the ‘Cocoa Ceremony’. This ancient rite dating back to the indigenous peoples of Central America will be celebrated by Claire Leriche Yafit and Walker Barnard at the Sacbe Tent.
Il Ciocco resort and Barga
The area – named the Living Mountain – spans through a naturalistic area of six-hundred hectares. It was born during Italy’s economic boom in the 1960s. It always had the mission to support local traditions. pastures, glades, vineyards, and wooded areas surround the facilities.
When it first opened, it was the only resort allowing tourists to sleep, eat and practice sports and other activities on the same premises. Barga, the biggest center near ‘Il Ciocco’, is on the Italian Touring Club’s list of the most beautiful villages of the country. Historic documents proved that it was inhabited since the prehistoric era.
Limbo Festival
Limbo Festival combines electronic music and different types of activities to promote Tuscany’s natural heritage and its local traditions.
