The "new Rome" at Spring Attitude Founder Andrea Esu talks about the past, present and future of Spring Attitude's cultural heritage

For some years now, Rome has transformed its identity chaos into a creative force, which in 2025 has reached its peak of international attention with the Jubilee. In the meantime, cultural spaces are multiplying and the city is experiencing a ferment that has not been felt for a long, perhaps too long, time. In this rebirth, Spring Attitude presents itself not only as a music festival but also as a critical lens on a “new Rome” under construction, able to intercept signals, talents, and contradictions. From September 12 to 13, the Nuvola by Massimiliano Fuksas, a symbol of contemporary Roman urbanism, will become for the first time a musical stage. Not just a container to be filled, but a living body of the festival in an environment where architecture, light, and sound merge into a collective experience. «This year we will be in a new venue for us and for the audience, a symbolic and highly evocative place of contemporaneity», explain the organizers. The choice of the Nuvola is deliberately political as well as aesthetic: it means moving electronic music and club culture from the margins to the center, making experimentation dialogue with institutions, and translating a landmark of contemporary Rome into a cultural platform.

Born as an independent project, Spring Attitude has been working for fourteen years on building an alternative imaginary for the Capital. Over time, the festival has brought to Rome what was then an almost visionary proposal: international electronic music, hybrid languages, and local roots. «Carrying on a project like Spring Attitude today is a stimulating, at times tiring experience, but deeply motivating» says Andrea Esu, founder of the festival. «Rome is going through a phase of great ferment: new spaces are being created, collectives are consolidating, and above all there is a concrete desire to experiment, collaborate, and build».

The curation of Spring Attitude has never been neutral: 70% of the 2025 line-up consists of artists under 35, with a precise balance between major internationally renowned names and new voices ready to stand out. «We have always alternated the big internationally recognized names with emerging and highly talented artists ready to establish themselves and reach a wider audience, precisely thanks to festivals like Spring Attitude». Thus, alongside BICEP, presenting their new audiovisual show CHROMA in its Italian exclusive, Apparat, and the uncompromising techno of Ellen Allien, there are the fluid sets of DJ Gigola or DJ Tennis, the theatrical pop of La Rappresentante di Lista, and the elegant funk-pop of L’Impératrice. But above all, artists such as Coca Puma, La Niña, Giorgio Poi, Golden Years, Post Nebbia, fenoaltea, and Arssalendo, all part of an emerging scene that often does not find space within institutional circuits.

The point is not only who performs, but how and where, since at the Nuvola, there will be no main stage or hierarchies, but a flow in which club culture and experimentation intertwine. Despite the changes, Esu emphasizes that Spring Attitude may change its appearance, but «our narrative is always the same: to experience a festival in Rome that is multifaceted, inclusive, bringing the city closer to the main European capitals that have a strong tradition of music festivals». Yet, looking at Rome from this perspective also highlights what is still missing. «There is a lack of adequate spaces and sometimes a cultural predisposition of part of the audience,» the organizers underline, pointing out the gap that still separates the city from capitals like Berlin or Paris. Here, Spring Attitude tries to intervene, working on a double level, both by bringing major global names to Rome and legitimizing local talents, integrating the city into a circuit that brings it closer to Europe without betraying its specificity.

«Spring Attitude wants to be not just an event, but a cultural activator, an open space where different languages, different generations can dialogue and imagine new forms of the future together», stresses Esu. The new Rome that the festival envisions is not simply a city that hosts events, but a city that itself becomes a cultural device. The challenge is to turn ferment into a system, the festival into a platform, and experimentation into normality. For now, for two days in September, the Nuvola will become the symbol of this possibility: a place where Rome truly tries to speak the language of the European capitals of contemporary culture.