SanMetro: Milan’s first music festival taking place in the subway

It is meant as a response and companion piece to the annual San Remo festival - Italy’s premier pop music event

From 7 to 10 February, Milan Metro will host the first Metropolitan Song Festival on the specially set-up Sound Underground stages at three of the network’s stations - M2 Garibaldi, M2 Loreto and M5 Bicocca. The event, called SanMetro, is meant as a response to the concurrently happening Sanremo Festival in the eponymous Ligurian town, which is a cultural institution of great renown in Italy.

Among the participating artists, the public will select, through the Open Stage social networks, the 9 finalists who will participate in the closing event scheduled for Friday 10 February in M5 Bicocca station.

The final will be broadcast on the social channels of Rockit, a media partner of the event, and will see the participation of an expert jury. 

Rethinking urban spaces

Subway stations are usually seen as transitory urban spaces, once where you only spend time forced by the circumstances of waiting for the next train to arrive. But the aim of this initiative is to promote a more inclusive environment and to make the metro system a place for culture.

The initiative was born in the context of the Sound Underground project, which offers defined and authorized spaces to those who wish to express their art, at the same time contributing to bringing the subway to life as a place of expression and social meetings.

There will be 18 competing artists, 2 on each stage (M2 Porta Garibaldi, M2 Loreto, M5 Bicocca) for each of the three days. The slots dedicated to the festival will have the following times: 15.00-16.00 and 16.00-17.00. Each artist or band will be able to perform for the entire hour free of charge.

It’s the audience that will decide the 9 finalists through voting on social media. The final itself will take place on 10 February at M5 Bicocca station.