The three days between 13 and 15 September see the return of Materadio, the ninth edition of Radio 3's festival in the European Capital of Culture!

Matera has been on a long journey with Rai Radio 3, with not-to-be-missed appointments with original productions and great names from the world of music, theatre and Italian and international cinema. This year, Materadio was based on an important topic, "The Souths", using different moments during the festival to discuss a part of the world that has been defined both by its geography and by a historical dialectic of critical moments and opportunities.

There will be a preview of Materadio with the great Italian singer Teresa De Sio de Sio on 12 September at the "Essenza Lucano" space in Pisticci Scalo*, a magical location where the ties between Basilicata and Amaro Lucano, the Essential Partner of Matera 2019, can be fully understood.

The curtain officially rises on Materadio in the Gervasio Auditorium in Piazza Sedile at 4:00 p.m. on Friday 13 September, with a major tribute to Andrea Camilleri through the words of Roberto Nobile and Mimmo Cuticchio. During the festival, cultural radio programmes such as Fahrenheit, Radio3 Scienza, Tutta la Città ne Parla and Radio3 Mondo will be broadcast from the Gervasio Auditorium of the Conservatory in Piazza Sedile. The stage for the theatrical and musical events (Teresa De Sio, Filo Rosso and many others) will be set up in Piazza San Francesco, and a series of conferences, encounters and presentations will take place in the space set up by the Open Design School. The major evening concerts will be held at Cava del Sole, with numerous special guests, including the great saxophonist Jan Garbarek and his quartet and Trilok Gurtu , who will be performing a brand-new production created with Gezziamoci, the festival organised by the Onyx Jazz Club of Matera on 13 September. On 14 September, the "La Notte della Taranta" Popular Orchestra will be taking the stage at Cava del Sole. The orchestra, which is conducted by Maestro Daniele Durante, is made up of pizzica and popular music musicians from all over the Salento. There will be no lack of surprises during the evening, with international guests performing.

This year, the final moments, when goodbyes are said to the city of Matera and this edition of Materadio, will include a symbolic passing of the torch from Matera 2019 to Galway 2020, the Irish city that, with the Croatian city of Rijeka, will be the next European Capital of Culture. The only artists who could mark this bridge between Basilicata and Ireland are the Modena City Ramblers, the Italian group that has most successfully expressed a relationship of sounds, ideas, faces and struggles, with an incendiary live set including their successes from the band’s 25 year history, to which we must add three of the most important artists in this genre, straight from Traidphicnic, the major festival of traditional Irish music that takes place in Galway every year: Gearóid Ó Murchú, Ruairi Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Rebecca Ní Éallaithe. The most highly-anticipated guests this year also include the astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman to be a member of the European Space Agency’s crews, who will tell the story of her experience among the stars exactly fifty years after the first moon landing.

The programme for this edition of Materadio is a way for us to understand the Souths by offering ideas, voices and sounds that will help comprehend the extraordinary complexity of this part of the world.

Discover the full programme on Matera Events here!

* Essenza Lucano can be reached via a shuttle service from Matera. It costs €5, and leaves from Piazza Matteotti at 7:30 p.m., returning at 10:30 p.m. For information and reservations, please contact Ridola Viaggi, Via Domenico Ridola, 54 (MT) | 0835/314233 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.ridolaviaggi.it