Versione Italiana   Ufficio stampa - Press office
+39 - 091-  6844483
E-mail monagri@tin.it

GENERAL INFORMATION
A cura dell’Ufficio Comunicazione e Immagine dell’Albaria

The magical Festival is back in Palermo from 15th to 23th May, among windsurfs and high-speed sailing boats, beach volley and big events: it’s the
World Festival On The Beach.
More sport, more music in a surprise program: this is the formula that has conferred the success upon the Windsurf World Festival, now at its 19^th edition, by combining high level sport events and shows in the natural and historical milieu of Sicily.

The scenery of Palermo’s valley and its cradle, Mondello, are the expression of Sicilian essence at its best and the ideal stage where punctually each year the World Festival On The Beach "29 Windsurf World Festival" occurs.

The 19^th edition of the World Festival On The Beach  will open its doors once again to 2004, starting from 15^th to 23^th  of May with the other events of the festival.  Each year more and more tourists are attracted to Mondello by an involving event richer than ever, which anticipates the summer season and brings, night and day, thousands of people in the fascinating valley of Palermo.

The big Sicilian party achieved once again the success of the Windsurf World Festival  by getting back the magical mix of the month of May in Mondello, and turned the seaside resort into a village unique in its kind.

Organised by Albaria Club, the Festival has taken advantage of its long tradition which brought it up to the top of worldwide renown in the context of windsurf, sailing and beach volley, still reserving big surprises such as the New Jazz Festival.

The event has been renamed  “World Festival On The Beach”, because of the quantity and quality of different happenings next to historical windsurf competitions.

The great sportive happenings are back and the characteristic climate of a tourist village is still there and will change once again Mondello’s face, where the sea, the beach and the audience will play the main part.

The Scenery
It wasn’t Albaria’s nor the Festival’s mission to let the whole world know about the beauty of such a suggestive spot. But after some years, when the media got interested – TV and magazines – unavoidably Mondello’s Club had to update some articles of its statute: to respect, popularise and declare the real essence of Sicily in the best way.

In the following years love declarations have been raining on Palermo, for its wonders and the tropical splendour of Mondello beach, for the significant richness spread around Sicily which often is not well considered.

Although it remains a moment of pure evasion, healthy fun and cultural enrichment, the Windsurf World Festival has become the Italian Ambassador in the world of a reality that just asks to be experienced.

 The Windsurf World Festival never promised anything and never exaggerated in anything. It simply limited itself to the course of the events, letting the images and the emotions of people speak.

Mondello
Mondello lies along the arch of a picturesque bay, between Mount Pellegrino and Mount Gallo, and is the most important seaside resort near Palermo.

In the last ten years it has been part of an extraordinary tourist development, with excellent hotels and a big choice of restaurants and amusements.

The particularly temperate climate also in winter time allows Mondello to be a very popular vacation spot.

The very north end of the bay is a fishing village lying at the feet of the rocky M. Gallo with its impervious slopes and from where a strip of land stretches out holding the Tower of Mondello,  the Saracen tower of an old Castle standing out from the area along the promenade.

Very few kilometres south of Mondello is Palermo, nowadays connected with its outskirts, and situated from the middle to the edges of the celebrated Conca d’Oro, surrounded of a magnificent crown of majestic mountains. 

Palermo, with its uncountable monuments and extremely rich arts, represents no less than four historical ages: Arab-Norman architecture, artistic expressions of  Middle Age to Renaissance, gorgeous expressions of rococo art of 16^th and 17^th century and decorative inspirations of a crowded group of artists of the 18^th Century.

The trace of man and of its creative presence appears in the outskirts of Palermo, since the last period of primitive life – Superior Palaeolithic. Homo Sapiens reveals the marks of its existence on Mount Pellegrino, in the caves which leave behind the coastal suburb of Addaura.

The Village
Valdesi Square strictly becomes a pedestrian zone surrounded by its well-cared gardens and opens the gates of Mondello and its festival among palm trees and colourful flowers.

The sea is just a few steps away, across the street, over the beach. All the rest has been designed in the way to respect what nature has given, but at the same time, to be useful for the multitudes in the best way.

Elegant, comfortable, lively and full of colours, but most important of all, without limits: this is the Village, the beating heart of all events of the Beach Festival, the entrance of Mondello with its beach and its main square.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors have populated its square and experienced the feeling of being at home…

Dominated by Villa Gregorietti, part of the Village is designed 7-8 months earlier to face the needs of each event which take place every year – the rest is given by nothing else but Mondello.

The Village of the Festival is just in front of the sea and turns out to be one only footpath with the beach – the arena of the beach volley, sailing competitions and of the promenades.

The big stage dominates the elegant open air drawing room where everyday people animate the scene and give life to the festival. A great wooden pyramid made by Marco Lanzafame is located at the edge of the area and determines the virtual entrance to the Village. Just virtual, because the Village has no fences: anyone can freely access, no tickets to pay, no invitations to show, no line to queue up in. It’s an open air space, to enjoy as citizens – at least for some days – part of the world of sports, music and fun.

 The idea is the one of a drawing room of the town. Plants and flowers are everywhere, as a result of the support of the Department for Gardens and Villas of the Town Council of Palermo, and other areas assigned for sport and music activities are made of valuable wood. The feeling is that nothing has been prepared; it has always been there and will continue to stay. And somehow it is so, because a real part of the scene is given by Nature.

Grateful for the cooperation of Institutions and Security Forces of the Municipal Police, Mondello’s viability doesn’t  suffer any problem, as alternative routes are planned to avoid the inconvenience of roads being closed to traffic, therefore all areas of Mondello will be normally reached  by the usual secondary streets. The big stage completes the look, where every night excellent musicians, singers, dances and show girls take their place, while a second sitting room is reserved for TV operators, as they have proper areas at their disposal.

At sunrise while the diligent employees of the organization help the very efficient team of AMIA (Environmental Sanitation Company of the Council of Palermo) in removing the inevitable rubbish from the night before, you can already see technicians testing sound, athletes warming up for the competitions together with the early visitors wandering around with one purpose: not to miss a single moment of the new day at the World Festival On the Beach… in Mondello.

Festival People
Members of the organization, workers, athletes, judges of the races, security teams, TV technicians, the concert audience, the general public artists, curious people… These are the Festival People, a show within a show.

By night so jammed you can’t even move or walk around inside the Village. But just a few steps towards the beach will bring the fragrances of the sea and its paradise.

On the stage great musicians playing jazz turn into dance music without a gap, with famous singers, actors, VIPs and Olympic athletes strolling around. A kaleidoscope of faces, a wheel of visages – more or less known – a human collection  at all levels. This is what turns the Village into Babel. You start by noticing the people working at their services all busy doing something and strictly fitted up with their t-shirts with the outstanding logo of the Windsurf World Festival.

The active climate becomes frantic as soon you get closer to the splendid villa Gregorietti, a masterpiece of Liberty Style among many other examples in Mondello. Anyway what surprises is the unique air you breath, hard to find  in any other sport or musical festival.

A kind of unconventional professionalism involves you from the first moment.

For example you could find high-tech equipment for digital video… in a kitchen. Or the press room super equipped full of computers… in the garden an ancient amphora just next to the compendium of hydrodynamics and technology of a skiff. You could find a reception area for athletes with ten people yelling into their ten mobile phones in ten different languages. And then the catering staff, the TV technicians from all over the world, a bunch of journalists. You might meet the famous musician waving a friendly “hello” to you or the world champion offering you his dish of spaghetti, or the top model (but this happens everywhere) who is not thinking of you… They are the Festival People, great passionate people at the service of a common project who every year for 18 years, keep their promise: “we’ll give you fun”.

A real team of valuable professionals supported by a pacific army of energetic volunteers guided by a staff, supported  by active Sponsors.

This is all the success of Windsurf World Festival. These are the friends of the Festival. Extraordinary people… to take part in this event is to believe in it. To take part in this event is to give your support.

Jazz and Music, the soundtrack of  Windsurf World Festival
Music shows are a historical part of Windsurf World Festival. Every year the people of the night are eager to applaud from the seaside artists’ performances. In the last edition, besides the guests in vogue in the hits of the moment, it was the Jazz Festival to be the novelty of the year with the stars of contemporary jazz. It’s not the first time that Albaria lets music to be the crown of the event which every year transforms Mondello into an international audience: pop, rock and modern music have made of the beautiful beach a colourful music village. Nevertheless, since jazz is deeply rooted in the hearts of managers and members of Albaria the Jazz Festival arranged by the stage manager Nick the Nightfly is a special dedication, rich and impressive, because of its presupposition laying at the basis of the idea: as a result of the support of Regional Assessorship  of Cultural Welfare it will be a yearly appointment which will offer the largest panoramic view  of the new trends of jazz and give new inspiration to the language of jazz for a continuous renovation.

CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH SICILIAN SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA

And, after the jazz one, another news, this year: the XIX  edition of the World Festival on the Beach is open to the classical music, too. An auditorium on the seaside, in Mondello’s beach: a stage 160 square meters large, the screen enclosed in a sound - absorbing shell, kindly given from the Bellini Theatre, will host the 96 elements of the very important Sicilian Symphonic Orchestra, directed by the great Alberto Veronesi. The Sicilian Symphonic Orchestra is on the top from more than forty years: it took part to the “Festival dei Due Mondi” of Spoleto, to the Venice “Biennale”,  and it performed during many tournée out from Italy: Germany, Japan, Dublin, Oxford, Praga and, above all, it has been the first Italian Orchestra performing in Pechin. Mondello will host it, now: a cocktail, the sea berceuse, Liberty style’ magic and, surrounded by the sunset, the “Sinfonie on the Beach” will begin: an hour of “high quality” music “from a heart to another heart” of listeners more or less skilful, who will be able to take part to an amazing event. It will interest anyone, also the younger ones, who will be able to see the performance, in ensemble, of the 14 years old Giulia Trevisani, a violoncello player and windsurfer, who  will walk on the same stage reserved to the  Sicilian Symphonic Orchestra.

(Sports)
Besides the historical  windsurf competition and the success of the past years, the spectacular “Australian 18 footer” are  back in Sicily to compete for a goal of the Skiff Pro Tour World Cup. These are very fast boats and very popular in the southern seas, where they have become so modern that they are now the most spectacular boats able to face a competition. Over 6 meters long, they have a crew of 3 people which take advantage of the lateral terraces big as wings keeping this castle of sails flying in a constant glide.

Talking about windsurfing, besides the individual competition of Sicily Grand Prix, a “National Cup” is planned after the Mistral European Championship, a sort of “America’s Cup” for windsurfers.

The Beach Volley is up to its 11^th edition, directed by Ario De Giovanni and arranged with Polisportiva Futura. Last year it represented the first important appointment in Italy of the international opening tour of the “Adecco Cup” Beach Volley Italian Championship, won by Fabio Galli.

Eight of the world’s best players have competed for the absolute title in the category of men and women. In 2001 Fabio Galli lined up the European champion Sacha Heyer, the multi-prized Dionisio Lequaglie, the Austrian Bob Nowotny and all Italian and international outstanding players who tried to compete for the title of “King of The Beach”.

Neither  in edition 2002 the European champion Sacha Heyer could obtain the crown of the King of the Beach of Mondello; instead it went to the “zar” Sergey Sayfulin with only two points higher in the hit. Dionisio Lequaglie was third, and the Greek George Giatsis was fourth.

Besides the King of The Beach, also women figure with a crowd of high-tech athletes. Most of all two Italians, Lucilla Perrotta and Daniela Gattelli have dominated during last year competitions getting fair after nine matches with Roberta Marini and the Brazilian Claudia Costa Oliveira and finally Lucilla got the title of Queen in the deciding match.

This spectacular competition takes place also by night by special request of the players and the audience: a suggestive scenery created by the lights and the music of jazz.

Sailing, Beach Volley, kite surfing and the surprise shows will be once more the winning formula of the great tourist village. Its goals will be to guarantee the entertainment of a holiday village, unique in its non-stop sequence of animation  and sports.

All of this is arranged by Albaria and its Staff. A team which has coordinated and accomplished for 17 years one of the most significant events of the planet.

As a responsible of the development for uncountable side events, Albaria organises the Windsurf World Festival taking care also of its image in all aspects, such as the direct marketing which is supported by prestigious companies above and below the line, with a colourful and efficient advertising campaign; the editorial office, keeping contact with the artists and athletes; the Web information; and at last but not least, the relationship with the media partners, which allows the Festival to be followed on TV all over the world.

Windsurf World Festival 2003 has established the guidelines worldwide, a party of sports and shows you can’t refuse: it will take place again from 5^th to 18^th May 2003 and open once again the doors to a fantastic and exciting tour of amusement.