Again this spring, the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua announces the return of its Risvegli Festival, which places nature at its center by offering to nurture and germinating ideas based on the unlimited forms and connections of nature through science and art to entertainment and information.

The Festival invites us to reflect on what we eat, how we use natural resources, and what relationships bind us to other living things with the environment around us. Participation in festival events is an opportunity to stimulate awareness because the choices we make today create the realities of tomorrow.

Held from 28 April to 2 May, the Risvegli Festival includes meetings, conferences, performances, workshops, family activities, guided tours,exhibitions, and art installations.

The first day of the Risvegli Festival begins with a lecture by the 2023 Stockholm Water Prize laureate Dr. Andrea Rinaldo, followed by the climate change lecture show Beltemposispera performed by Gabriele Vacis, Roberto Tarasco and fellow actors of Potenziali Evocati Multimediali (PEM). The day concludes with a theatre performance produced by the AIDA Foundation entitled L’ultima primavera silenziosa starring Pino Costalunga and Françoise Tutti Schieber.

Musical and theatrical performances are included each evening throughout the festival as well as workshops and daily fun learning activities for children and audiences of all ages.

The Risvegli Festival includes conferences and opportunities to meet authors such as Barbara Conti, Luigi Cattivelli, and Tomas Morosinotto as they discuss subjects ranging from insects to the future of food. By placing nature at its center, the festival also includes discussions on climate change and the role of seeds as custodians of biodiversity by welcoming Caterina Guidi, Davide Michielin, and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault coordinator Åsmund Asdal.

On April 30, the theatre group BASE 9 performs Dancing Strides #4 – Harvest, by inviting audiences of all ages to participate in a collective walk as an alternative way of observing the environment. The day concludes with a performance of La voce degli alberi in serra mediterranea narrated by Daniele Zovi with musical guest Alberto Salini which reveals a conversation between an olive tree and a lemon. 

On May 1, the day opens with a tree climbing demonstration and continues with a performance by the theatre group Faber Teater of Cambiare il clima and concludes with a contemporary circus performance by the French association T'es rien sans la Terre (You are nothing without the Earth).

Visitors are welcome to the foyer of the auditorium to view the Alberi! 30 + 1 frammenti di storia d’Italia exhibition and to participate in activities for children proposed by M9 Education. Throughout the Risvegli Festival, as early as 22 April, three large interactive sound installations dedicated to the particular architecture of the sixteenth-century Garden are available for viewing, including the artistic project Sonus Horti (garden sounds) by Rocco Papia and the ISRAW collective.

Closing on Tuesday 2 May, the Risvegli Festival concludes with a special evening by welcoming Massimo Polidoro and Telmo Pievani to discuss La scienza dell’incredibile.

Reservations available from April 20. 

Programme