Padova Tango Festival

Piazza Pedrocchi takes its name from the café it houses: the Pedrocchi (also known as the ‘café without doors’ because open day and night until 1916), located in the very city-center, it soon became the most prestigious meeting place for academics, intellectuals, writers, artists and students from all over Padua.

So the Festival’s closing party had to take place here, no other place would have been better environment for the Tango travelers.

Here, everything from the commemorative plaques inside the café that pay tribute to famous guests (such as: Gabriele D’Annunzio, Ippolito Nievo, Eleonora Duse, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Sthendal) to the Renaissance museum, emanates history and love and recognition for culture.  From today, Tango too can join the list of the illustrious guests of the Pedrocchi, at least metaphorically speaking…

At 5 p.m. on Sunday 25 June 2023, Alberto Muraro was silently attracting the attention of several passers-by, as he opened the metal table and set up the Tdj station by the stairs of the Cafè.

This evening the square will come to life animated by tangueros from all over the province and beyond, also a group from the U.S. arrived with Fernanda Ghi is present for the occasion.

Alberto Muraro and Marta Lorenzi carefully follow the final preparations, a quick word with the Pedrocchi’s staff just to make sure everything is set up as planned and ready to run as they have been organizing this event for months.

The tables are embellished with long tablecloths that skim the floor and the menu choice is refined and calibrated for tangueros – as light and delicate as the wine proposal that accompanies it.

The Pedrocchi treats its costumers with special courtesy, the staff is professional and with polite elegance keeps the whole room under control as the square comes to life and the Milonga begins.

It’s possible to feel a special warmth – pure fun and spontaneous cheerfulness from coming from the participation of tangueros and spectators present alike, that is contagious.

The evening reached its climax with the performance of Silvio Grand and Fernanda Ghi, fueled by so much energy they danced beautifully and simply; the Tango!

An ovation of endless applause rose from the audience following the performance of Astor Piazzolla’s Oblivion and we can be sure to affirm that where music has no borders, tango builds bridges in people’s hearts.

After the performance I join Silvio Grand who tells us, that all festivals differ one from the other in terms of proposals, directions, artists involved, but that there is one thing that never changes and that makes Padua festival truly unique: it is designed to give relevance to Tango and to bring people who still do not know it and curious closer.

It is a non-commercial festival where everyone is a guest and this is the reason that leads me to choose to collaborate with and for the Festival, because there is a return for the entire Tango community and its associations.

Q.: The audience sensed your emotions while you were dancing.

Silvio Grand: Yes, this is what I try to do with my dance partners. In this case with Fernanda Ghi, we have known each other for more than 20 years, as she lives in the USA and we don’t get to always work together, we have often performed with symphonic orchestras and  we worked a lot in Romania.

In the performance we shared the choice of not choreographing and the audience can feel this.

Tonight we performed four pieces and they were all improvised – hardly anyone thought this is possible, but of course it was.

Obviously, we know the music, but we really enjoy the whole process of understanding each other while dancing, of getting to know each other and moving together while having fun creating the movement.

This language peculiar of the Argentine tango is its trademark.

Experiencing the Padua Festival is an opportunity and Webradio Faitango has been present all evenings with our own Tiziana Michelotto, who collected interviews with the protagonists of the Festival, artists, tangueros and organizers.

We look forward to seeing you at the X XIV edition in 2024.

Happy tango to all !

Barbara Savonuzzi