I-Days Milano Coca-Cola’s 2023 edition kicks off this evening with a sell out Florence+The Machine (30,000 people at the racecourse) and we catch up with organizer Corrado Rizzotto to take stock of the event and the great guests they will be honoring Do.
Let’s talk about the names included in the bill, how was the festival born?
«Our first goal in building the festival line-up was to have no boundaries of any kind. The world has changed very fast and we want to be able to choose the best offers in the market regardless of music genre, target etc. The public is transversal and wants to follow music in a completely transversal way than ever before. We open tonight with Florence, an extraordinary result for her in Italy (she’s never had 30,000 paying visitors in our country), Rosalia playing as a headliner at the main world festivals, Spring and Coachella and an extraordinary Forum Tomorrow comes after. last December. We are obviously very pleased with the extraordinary result of Travis Scott who burned through 80,000 tickets available in less than 24 hours. It sold out which is a record for Italy for a live debut artist. I don’t want to forget Arctic Monkeys, who we’ve been following since the beginning and they will have their biggest concert ever in Italy, between Rome (sold out for months) and Milan (more than 60,000 people) we will reach more than 100,000 the audience. But in general the whole cast is really great this year and manages to cover all ages and musical tastes.
Not only international artists but also some valuable Italian ones. is that so?
«With Travis Scott we highlight Italian artists such as Ava and Capo Plaza, while for Nutini’s evening, in addition to bringing Interpol, we wanted Fast Animals and Slow Kids from Perugia. We made such choices which we found to be in line with Independence Day».
I-Day was born in 1999: what has changed since then?
«Since the beginning, ours has always been a constant pursuit: always new names alongside established artists. We’ve never been afraid to create combinations that may seem daring on paper. I remember watching the concert in the rain in 1999 by Verdena and I tre allegri ragazzi morti, Joe Strummer».
Let’s talk about the match and the location: is it destined to stay in the future?
«This is our intention, we are already planning for 2024 and will confirm the cast shortly, we are still working on two racetracks, Snay and La Moura. The city, the region and even the whole of Italy respond very well to our artistic offer and we also see an increase in attendance from abroad. Of the 300,000 tickets sold, more than two thirds come from outside Lombardy and 10% of this from abroad».
The match itself is very expensive: have you thought about reducing the cost of tickets?
« As far as Independence Day is concerned, the ticket prices have been studied so as to facilitate as many people as possible. If you think about Florence and Nutini, for example, the prices are really cheap. More generally, prices in La Moura are lower than in the rest of Europe. If we compare it with a football match, then in this case we talk about unique events. Despite the increase in recent years after covid, we have managed to keep prices very affordable: look at the cost of concerts and festivals abroad. Our desire to keep concerts accessible is also linked to the fact that Independence Day is a showcase for artists.»
Dates of I-Days Milano Coca-Cola Celebration
June 22: Florence and the Machine + Foam | Sudan Archives (Snai San Siro Racecourse)
June 23: Rosalia + Tinashe | Yendry | Clara (Snay San Siro Racecourse)
June 24: Paolo Nutini + Interpol | Fast Animals and Slow Kids (Sneaky San Siro Racecourse)
June 30: Travis Scott + Capo Plaza | AVA (Sneaky La Moura Racecourse)
July 1: Liam Gallagher | Black Keys + Nothing But Thieves (Sneaky La Moura Racecourse)
July 2: Red Hot Chili Peppers + Skunk Anansi | Primal Scream | Studio Morena (Sneaky La Moura Racecourse)
July 15: Arctic Monkeys + Hives | Willie J. Healy | Omni (Sneaky La Moura Racecourse)