9948 From where do you find out about local events?

Hi there

The local bars are a great place to start, they usually carry fliers with all the up coming events, sometimes they even have a magazine production with all places to go.

The comunne are good for the local town events. they usually have their own publication.

Friends both italian and english or european are good too, as this gives you a good cross reference and sometimes they produce things that people have only told them.

Personally i use all differnet mediums to find what i want to do.

gill

Locally bars and roadside posters are best, but if you're looking for something further away, you might have to ask friends. Altho some of the larger festas do have internet sites (ckeck [url]www.umbiraonline.com[/url]) many are still very small and the locals just know when and where to go.

Most Italian "Comune" have their own website and they publish a list of events. Local shops and cafés, as mentioned, are also a good source of information. Neighbours will also recommend you events "not to be missed".

This topic keeps coming up, Sue. Have a look at [url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/eat-drink/9300-atlas-abruzzo-foodstuffs.html[/url] and and [url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/culture-entertainment/6480-opera.html[/url].

[quote=TuesdaySue;92706]With all the local festas going on in this time of year, I'm interested to know what sources everyone uses to plan their party-going!
So do you prefer to use...
- the expat grapevine
- Italian friends and neighbours
- local printed press
- forums such as this one
- information websites in Italian
- information websites in English
- tourist offices
- noticeboards and posters
- something else...?
- you only go to events if you stumble upon them[/quote]

All of the above!

In fact I find that there is no problem finding things to go to, there is something happening almost every evening in July and August. For example I know of four 'events' this evening, but I shall not be going to any of them because I shall be at a friend’s birthday party.

One thing I have found is that a lot of these events have the same stalls, entertainment etc, a bit like a travelling fair, so it is nice to go to ‘themed events’ like the Festa Della Strega in Appignano, or the Medieval Night in Vacri, which are different to the others.

I agree with Nielo, if you rely on one source you will miss so many events. I find the internet is one of the least useful resources for local events in Italy.

Thanks for all the really helpful replies so far! Really appreciate it. :smile:

I'm curious about some of the comments - when you talk about using local publications, do you read these in Italian? Or do they translate them for you?

A couple of folk have written that "X" is a possible source of info - can I just check, is that what you actually use yourself?

Can anyone else add comments? Do you have the same mix of sources or different ones?

Why all the questioning?
I want to know if an Abruzzo newsletter in English would be a good place of finding all the events from across the region. I've found people keen so far, so I'm trying to get a wider view of how people get their info.

If you want to chat more about the newsletter idea, just PM me.

Sue Hi One further thought might be to pm members here yourself who have interests in Abruzzo. and if you look at The Groups there is an Abruzzo one naming the members. Also why not ask Ronald if in fact Italy mag Forums might like you to integrate it in some way with the Italy Grand Tour website. Maybe be allowed to advertise it there for free??? Other members may then use it for a template and proceed to have ones for all the other regions of Italy. I can see Juliancoll do Lazio admirably.

TuesdaySue, asking your questions in the form of a poll might result in more useful data for your research.

Yes Nielo I have already suggested that in a pm to her.

[quote=Sally Donaldson;92898]Yes Nielo I have already suggested that in a pm to her.[/quote]

Sorry Sally but I am not privy to your private messages and the telepathy isn't working well at the moment.

Sue, the problem, as I see it, with a newsletter is that Abruzzo is really quite a big place and certainly during August you would need something the size of the phone book to list all the events. Atri alone has an event every single night throughout August and even tiny places have their own Festa or Sagra. I suppose if you concentrated only on the major towns it might be manageable but it is a pity to miss out some of the small events, especially as quite a lot of people live or have houses out in the sticks.

As I see it, you can only see so many festas and missing out on some of the small events is inevitable...We are here for awhile one hopes and can see all in the fullness of time...maybe.
Bunch

Hey Nielo, is this a case of great minds thinking alike??? Just teasing.

[quote=Sally Donaldson;92938]Hey Nielo, is this a case of great minds thinking alike??? Just teasing.[/quote]

More like fools seldom differing I think Sally!!!
:laughs:

Thanks for the responses, and you're absolutely right that it's a challenge listing everything.

In our small editorial team we do limit ourselves to the most established festas - not because there isn't enough space - but because it's hard to get concrete information about the smaller festas in time to publish a newsletter before they happen.

It can be challenging to get the precise details of a festa that's organised by volunteers, and is subject to last minute changes in venue or whatever. And the organisers don't tend to issue press releases, so it's a big job calling round to get confirmed details (we don't want to go telling people to turn up on the wrong day!). :no:

That said, we want to list as many great festas as possible, so [B]please do contact me if your paese is having an event[/B] and has already confirmed the details well in advance!
:smile:

Sue, how do you plan to distribute the Newsletter???

At last I found the bookmark which I have mentioned before in threads here - [url=http://www.abruzzo.com/feste/index.html]Benvenuti in Abruzzo: tutte le feste e sagre in Abruzzo[/url]

How to distribute the newsletter is something we've thought about a lot. We've decided to work through word-of-mouth for the first pilot issue, and gauge how many people are keen from that.
All suggestions welcome.

First the Tourist Office in Sulmona

And the Abruzzo Tourist desk at Pescara Airport

You could also place them in central Sulmona,and Pescara bars, ristorante, hotels and b+bs. Oh and Estate Agents.

[quote=TuesdaySue;93252]How to distribute the newsletter is something we've thought about a lot. We've decided to work through word-of-mouth for the first pilot issue, and gauge how many people are keen from that.
All suggestions welcome.[/quote]

How do you intend to fund the newsletter? Will it be free or are you looking to sell it to cover costs or indeed offer a subscription?

I have to admit that as there are so many other ways to get the information (maybe not as conveniently nor such a comprehensive coverage in English) I suspect people may not want to pay for it and if you are only doing small print runs it can get quite expensive. Just my thoughts.
:smile:

Good points Nielo. It seems to me too, Sue might not have thought it all out first although she's such a capable girl and it would surprise me if she hadn't!!! It might have been a good idea to conduct the poll here at the outset but too late now and I understand she is about to go to press.

I was just about to suggest that she might be able to carry direct advertising, not for the events themselves but say local organic oil /wine/cheese producers and so on, or get them or Estate Agents to sponsor the Newsletter.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. ;) Thanks also to those who've already expressed interest and who will be receiving a copy of the newsletter in a couple of weeks!

We did, in fact, do a bit of market research before launching into the newsletter!

And, as Sally correctly guessed, we are funding it mainly through advertising and also grants.

That said, with the pilot we're including a feedback form asking if people would like to have a subscription sent to their house, and if so, would they be prepared to contribute to the postage costs.

Who else can tell me about how they find out about events?