Introduction
In late August 2022, during fieldwork in Italy, I encountered an intriguing online announcement by a long-time acquaintance. It promoted an interesting event: a music performance in a natural park near Sassetta, a village in Tuscany, central Italy. Scheduled for the next day, the event included a guided walk through the park and a solo violin concert performed by my friend, amidst the serene backdrop of nature (Figure 1). This event, organised by a local cultural association known for promoting community engagement with nature, exemplified the intersection of music and environmental appreciation. The following days brought another event, this time in a pine forest near another Tuscan village, Marina di Castagneto Carducci. Organised similarly, this event emphasised sensory exploration and ecological awareness through music, facilitated by a local singer known for her environmental advocacy (Figure 2).Footnote 1
“The sound of silence,” 23 August 2022. Photo by author.
“The silence and the sounds of the pine forest,” 25 August 2022. Photo by author.
While I attended these events just as a spectator, they prompted some critical questions about the role of music in connecting people with natural environments. Can music bring people to natural areas? Can music performances within natural areas enable sustainable visits to such places? How does music enhance our perception and understanding of ecological spaces? Can musical experiences foster sustainable relationships between individuals, places, and non-human entities? Intrigued by these questions, I sought out additional events organised with a similar approach—combining musical performances with ecotourism in natural settings. My goal was to understand how music contributes to ecotourism and the extent to which it plays a significant role in shaping these experiences.
This article explores these inquiries within the framework of ecomusicology. Ecomusicology is a field, rather than a discipline (Allen and Dawe Reference Allen, Dawe, Allen and Kevin2016:1), that explores the triadic connections (Allen Reference Allen2024:136) between music, nature, and culture (Allen Reference Allen and Garret2013) “in a time of environmental crisis” (Titon Reference Titon2013:9), such as the one that we are currently experiencing. Ecomusicology is better understood in its plural form (ecomusicologies) to reflect the multiplicity of possible interdisciplinary approaches that the connection between music, nature, and culture may imply (Allen and Dawe Reference Allen, Dawe, Allen and Kevin2016; Allen Reference Allen, Dowell, Borland, Dirksen and Tuohy2021; Pedelty et al. Reference Pedelty, Allen, Chiang, Dirksen and Kinnear2022; Allen and Titon Reference Allen, Titon, Allen and Titon2023). In this article, I use an interdisciplinary ecomusicology approach to advocate for music ecotourism. Here I provide a detailed analysis of four case studies where music is employed by environmental and conservation organizations, as well as park authorities, for ecotourism purposes. In doing so, I adopt the ecomusicological approach of focusing on the relationship between music and the environment. This involves considering the environment that makes music possible (Allen and Titon Reference Allen and Titon2019:5; Allen Reference Allen2020:306) and examining how music, in turn, impacts the environment (Allen Reference Allen2024:149). In this sense, the article aims to contribute to the existing body of research on how music can positively impact the natural environment by raising environmental awareness and supporting conservation efforts led by various organizations.
Music and Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a nature-based, experiential, low-impact, non-consumptive, and locally oriented niche of tourism. It focuses on fostering visitors’ ethics, sense of responsibility, and environmental awareness, and benefits localised actions of conservation and preservation. Ecotourism also aims to responsibly and sustainably contribute to the development of the local area. Ecotourism has a strong educational focus, using hands-on activities to teach visitors about the biological and cultural diversity of a destination through direct experience (Fennell Reference Fennell2005:20–31; Donohoe and Needham Reference Donohoe and Needham2006:206–207). Ecotourism plays a key role in the sustaining of natural parks and other areas of naturalistic interest and is a tool to sustain conservation organisations, rural communities and wildlife (Brandon Reference Brandon1996; Stronza, Hunt, and Fitzgerald Reference Stronza, Hunt and Fitzgerald2019:236–237). Ecotourism experiences can also lead to some unintended negative consequences, and it might fail to improve income equity among various stakeholders, often perpetuating capitalist exploitation of underdeveloped areas (Liu and Bao Reference Liu and Bao2004; Das and Chatterjee Reference Das and Chatterjee2015). No such adverse impacts were observed in this study.
In Italy, studies on ecotourism focus on a diverse array of activities, including walking and hiking (Tempesta, Visintin, and Marangon Reference Tempesta, Visintin, Marangon, Arnberger, Brandenburg and Muhar2002; Montaguti and Mingotto Reference Montaguti and Mingotto2015; Mondino and Beery Reference Mondino and Beery2019; Palli et al. Reference Palli, Cagnetti, Emanuel, Ferrari, Goffredo Filibeck and Franceschini2023; Marasco and Marchi Reference Marasco and Marchi2023), aquatic activities (Agius Reference Agius2018) and wildlife watching (Agius, Theuma, and Deidun Reference Agius, Theuma and Deidun2021). Cultural activities are often mentioned in papers discussing the ecotourism potential of an area and are usually referred to as some sort of appreciation of the local historical and cultural heritage (Ioppolo, Saija, and Salomone Reference Ioppolo, Saija and Salomone2013; Agius Reference Agius2018). Curiously, music and expressive culture are not mentioned in studies of ecotourism in this country. In this regard, the study seeks to advocate for music-based ecotourism activities within this country and context.
Ecotourism intersects with music by playing a role in connecting communities and their expressive cultural practices with the natural environment (Titon Reference Titon, McDowell, Borland, Dirksen and Tuohy2021:165–168). Conversely, music has been observed in Iceland to be a means through which people encounter landscapes of the Nordic country, thus motivating and inspiring ecotourism (Dibben Reference Dibben, Holt and Kärjä2017:17). Grant et al. explored how localized music and sound-based practices in Indonesia, Vanuatu, and Australia contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals from an ecotouristic perspective. For example, Vanuatu’s Ëtëtung water music is used to advocate for climate action, aligning with the principles of ecotourism by attracting tourists while fostering environmental awareness and cultural preservation (Grant et al. Reference Grant, Bartleet, Barclay, Lamont and Sur2022:505–507). In this context, music ecotourism is grounded in Vanuatu’s musical traditions and serves to enhance the community’s economic resilience while promoting the role of women in the local economy (Grant et al. Reference Grant, Bartleet, Barclay, Lamont and Sur2024). The case studies presented in this article are distinct in that the musicians and performers involved in the various events were not rooted in specific music cultures, styles and genres but rather employed what they thought was best for the various performances.
In this essay, I explore four case studies from an ecomusicological standpoint, employing an ethnomusicological toolset consisting of qualitative interviews and participant observation. I examine how music and sound-based activities are used in relation to ecotourism and the promotion of areas of naturalistic interest. In all the events, I interviewed the organiser(s) to understand the role of music within the events according to the park authorities. Moreover, during the last two events described here, Il Canto del Lago and Il Parco delle Stelle, I also interviewed a few random members of the audience, thanks to the support of the organisation’s staff. As I was performing, the interviews were conducted in the days and weeks following the events. Contacts and consent for the interviews were collected at the end of the first event and prior to the beginning of the second one. I conducted phone interviews with three of the people who attended the first event and eight who attended the latter. The three people attended the first event individually, while of the eight interviewees of the second event, one came by themselves and the other was with groups of up to six people of friends and/or relatives. Most of them stated to have discussed with the other members of their group about the event and performances before the interviews.
Music on the Apuan Alps
‘Il festival culturale in quota Musica sulle Apuane’ (the cultural festival at altitude Music on the Apuan Alps) is an annual musical festival with various concerts at several locations in the Apuan Alps.Footnote 2 The area constitutes a UNESCO Global Geopark that comprehends the sharp mountain range situated in northern Tuscany between the Serchio River, the Aulella Stream, and the Versilia Plain.Footnote 3 The following is the English translationFootnote 4 of an extract from the festival website:
This idea has been established in Trentino for several years now, thanks to the creativity and enthusiasm of the Venetian cellist Mario Brunello, one of the creators of the “I Suoni delle Dolomiti” festival. The echoes of the Dolomites have reached our Dolomites in miniature: the Apuan Alps, still waiting for a tourism that is more aware and respectful, which is the expression of a spontaneous exchange between the beauty of nature and the culture of man, a tourism that music can encourage.Footnote 5
The other festival referenced here has been held annually for the last 28 years in the northeast of the country, in the Dolomite Mountains, a part of the Alps mountain range.Footnote 6 In this unique tourist setting, visitors are asked to join a hike in the mountains that usually concludes with a concert in a place of incredible natural beauty. Both Musica sulle Apuane and I Suoni delle Dolomiti are free of charge, and everybody can joinFootnote 7, although for the festival on the Apuan Alps, visitors should be members of the local branch of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) situated in the city of Massa. For the club’s membership, a small annual fee is charged (€6 in 2023). The fee ensures proper insurance coverage during the trekking activities.Footnote 8
The 11th edition of Musica sulle Apuane included seven concerts, one open-air theatrical performance, and one film screening, in nine different locations within the natural park or in the surrounding areas, and it ran from 10 June to 3 September 2023. Of the seven concerts, six included a walking excursion of different levels of difficulty. Only one was mandatorily accessible through the hike. In the other five concerts, the hike was optional, and the visitors could choose to reach the concert destination via other forms of transportation. They could choose to either drive to the location or carpool with other visitors. For five of these concerts, guided hikes were scheduled just before the performances. The hikes were carefully planned, either to reach the concert site and temporary stage or as a loop trail starting and ending at the concert location. For one concert, the hike was organised the day after, thus constituting a two-day event. Six out of seven concerts were organised in outdoor locations—weather permitting.
Gioia Giusti is the artistic director of this festival. She is an accomplished pianist performing in several national and international festivals, and a music educator teaching piano in some local music high schools. Gioia confirms the statement found on the website, about having taken inspiration from the festival on the Dolomites, albeit she evidences that the two situations are very different. The main difference is economic. She argues that I Suoni delle Dolomiti is a festival promoted by the regional organisation Trentino Marketing, and it is supported by many subjects, institutions, and sponsors. For Musica sulle Apuane, her effort is the main driving force, and the local branch of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) constitutes the main financial sponsor. Unfortunately, the regional institution does not offer any support whatsoever. The organisation also self-supports itself, selling t-shirts, and other gadgets. Among the other partners and funders are the Apuane Park authority and the institutions of the single municipalities hosting the concerts in their premises, together with Massa’s municipality. Considering the economic struggles of the organisation, the musicians included in the programme are often asked to perform for a reduced fee. While the Dolomites festival provides shuttle buses to transport the audience to venues, attendees of Musica sulle Apuane must travel to locations on their own. This often leads tourists to prefer concerts on the coastal side of the mountain range, closer to numerous seaside tourist towns, than those organised on the other side, the Garfagnana. Footnote 9
Music, sound and walking are inextricably linked within this festival, as underlined by the following statement on its website:
Music is the sharing of emotions and empathy between the artist and those who accept it without any reservations, to be led into an unpredictable sound world that arouses individual and collective sensations, capable of making people rejoice, bewilder, upset, and arouse memories. It not only lives in theatres or other ‘conventional’ places, it is something too large and universal for a single place to make it its own; has always accompanied man. Humans have perceived it among the stars, among the sounds of the forests, the singing of birds, in the voice of the sea. A trek to listen to a concert is a unique experience for those who love music and the mountains. Musicians and listeners united in a single path, without any separation or architectural barriers, in total sharing. A sharing that does not end with the last note of the concert.Footnote 10
When I asked what the reason is for incorporating musical events in such a context, Gioia explained: “The musical—or theatrical—performance is a medium, not the main purpose, although obviously, it is the highlight of the day, but it is a medium for an environmental experience, to make people spend as much time as possible in the mountains” (Gioia Giusti, interview, 4 July Reference Giusti2023). Hiking and sightseeing are the predominant activities, Gioia says, without downplaying the poetic part of the experience: “Obviously, together with the artistic experience, everything is more impressive (to the visitors) and it is not just propaganda” (Gioia Giusti, interview, 4 July Reference Giusti2023).
Musica sulle Apuane plays an important role in environmental education. The organisation is particularly critical towards the extraction of marble from the mountains (Gioia Giusti, interview, 4 July Reference Giusti2023). The Apuan Alps, are the natural origin location of the world-renowned Carrara Marble, whose excavation site has been active at least since Roman times (Prochaska Reference Prochaska2023:3, 8). As a consequence of the extraction, the white quarries constitute a unique, albeit terribly butchered, landscape (Quagliati Reference Quagliati2022:43). The extraction is supported by local institutions and the scarred landscape is promoted by the local tourism board as a “spectacular and sublime” touristic feature of the area (Quagliati Reference Quagliati2022: 45). The extraction is strongly opposed by local citizens, and numerous local organisations have emerged to fight against the environmental damage that the marble industry perpetrates.Footnote 11 While her stance is not activist per se, Gioia is very critical of the marble industry. She argues that one of the goals of the festival is to make marble excavation environmental damage and the scars left on the mountains known and seen by more people (Figure 3). Ironically, she recalls that every year the festival management has to produce an acoustic impact assessment for each of the concerts, despite the very loud extraction activities.
Regretfully, outside of our area, this phenomenon is not very well known. Alright, (for many) these are only the white marble quarries of Michelangelo. (…) Marble is a beautiful thing only if connected to sculpture. Unfortunately, this is not true anymore, because the marble used for sculpture constitutes only a minimum part of what is extracted, compared to what is being ground to be used for less noble goals, like whitener for paper. (…) Also, calcium carbonateFootnote 12 dust is used for many things, from the cosmetic industry to one thousand other things, (…) and most of the vans that you see coming down from the mountains transport that dust.
(Gioia Giusti, interview, 4 July Reference Giusti2023)Sistine Chapel’s brass sextet performing at the Focolaccia pass, Tambura mountain, within an open marble quarry, 23 July 2023. Photo by Carlo Giusti.
Gioia started this festival purely out of her love for the mountains and for music. She recalls that once she found a piano in a mountain refuge in the area, and that is how she got the idea for the events. It was the first time she ever tried to organise a festival, and fortunately, she found support in the local Alpine Club. In these events, their organisational support is instrumental. They provide guides with a strong knowledge of the mountains and the hiking trails. The logistics of the concerts are the most difficult part to organise, especially for what concerns the transportation of the instruments (Figure 4). For concerts situated outdoors, the festival management chooses only ensembles of instruments that can be carried on a hike by the performers, but also that can reflect the acoustic features of the place. For a very open location, for example, they choose to deploy a brass sextet which produces a high volume of sound.
The transportation of instruments by the members of the cello quartet ‘Cello Play Ensemble’ in the 2016 edition of the festival. Photo by Michele Ambrogi.
Gioia is very satisfied with the amount of people that the festival reaches, and she is moved by their support. During a crowdfunding campaign, Musica sulle Apuane was supported by hundreds of donors, overcoming the initial €8,000 threshold to reach over €13,000. Regretfully, the festival organisation never collected feedback and comments from the visitors, but they might in the future.
Musica sulle Apuane combines music with the delivery of a critical understanding of the Apuan Alps Geopark’s situation. In this sense, the festival is almost activist in nature as it serves to highlight the damage that the marble industry is doing to the mountains. At the same time, the festival helps in attracting people to this area, using music to promote a sense of care and, hopefully, stewardship of the landscape.
ViviParco
‘Viviparco: incontri musica danza libri’ (to live the park: meetings, music, dance, and books) is a series of diverse events that happens every year in the protected natural area of Parco Naturale di Migliarino, San Rossore, e Massaciuccoli (Natural Park of Migliarino, San Rossore, and Massaciuccoli). The 2023 edition was the second edition of this festival, which ran from 27 June to 30 July. It included art exhibitions, book presentations, dance and theatre performances, musical performances, a puppet show, and other workshops, excursions and activities. All the festival activities were free of charge. The festival was promoted and supported by local and regional institutions, including the Pisa municipality. The musical performances of the two editions of the festival have been very diverse: some of the musicians featured included local singer-songwriters Bobo Rondelli and Nada, experimental jazz guitarist Paolo Angeli, two members of the classic Italian pop band Matia Bazar, but also a classical piano duo, and many others who performed during and outside the festival.
The park is widespread between the provinces of Lucca and Pisa but geographically lies closer to the latter. Established in 1979, it includes several ecosystems, such as beaches, dunes, forests, wetlands, and reclaimed lands.Footnote 13 The park is managed by the Park Authority, which aims to protect the environmental and historic features of the Pisa and Lucca coastline. Their mission also includes running environmental education projects and supporting local economic activities (Ente Parco Regionale Migliarino 2003). The park includes the former presidential estate of San RossoreFootnote 14 where the festival takes place. San Rossore is divided into three different areas with different levels of accessibility (Figure 5). The Area C is accessible by everyone every day, within opening times. Visitors in this area can circulate anywhere in the area by foot, bicycle, or horse, and with their own vehicle only on the asphalted road. The Area B has limited access. In this area, visitors can circulate freely only on marked trails, and no motor vehicles are allowed. In Area A, any unauthorised access is forbidden. Visits are allowed only on special occasions and after the purchase of a special ticket (Parco Regionale Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli 2022).
Map of the three different accessibility levels within San Rossore park. Map Credit: Parco Regionale Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli park authority (Parco Regionale Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli 2022).
If the previous organisation’s aim was to make people aware of the beauty and the tragedy of the current state of the Apuan Alps, Viviparco operates within an area that is already protected and precluded to the public. The festival aims to enable responsible visits within those parts of the park that are usually not accessible to visitors, like the areas included in the Area A category. Raffaele Zortea, the designated spokesperson for the park authority, explained that access to this area is granted only during special events. These events include concerts and other activities featured in the festival. This approach helps to preserve the area’s natural integrity (Raffaele Zortea, interview, 2 August Reference Zortea2023). Visitors have to be part of a guided tour and enjoy the place respectfully, and responsibly. Additionally, shuttle buses were organised to transport people to the various remote areas of the park where the stage was set up. No artificial lights were used and the concert was either acoustic or using a very small amplification system, to limit the noise pollution in the area. Raffaele mentioned that a broader goal of the various park activities is to integrate the concept of the natural area as part of the human community, specifically, “to think of a new relationship between man and nature (in which) nature is not precluded to humans” (Raffaele Zortea, interview, 2 August Reference Zortea2023).
The notion of nature as separate from humans is a concept unique to Western ontologies (Descola Reference Descola2013b:82; Valenti Possamani Reference Valenti Possamani2013:837–839). This idea arises from a Cartesian dualist perspective that views the environment and other animal species as distinct and separate from human beings and their activities. (Descola Reference Descola2013a:3; Berque Reference Berque2016:24,36; Lillebø Reference Lillebø2023). The concept of a natural park is derived from this romantic idea of nature as a fragile other that needs to be protected, fenced, isolated and separated from areas in which humans perpetrate their everyday activities, in order to satisfy various anthropocentric aesthetic needs (Callicott Reference Callicott1994:173; Reference Callicott, Pepper, Webster and Revill2003). Viviparco and all its events are included in the park strategy to overcome this cultural divide and frame different modes of relationships between humans and nature within protected areas. These are not the only cultural and social events organised by the park management. Outside the festival, other concerts are often organised in the spring, but also open-to-the-public beach cleaning operations effectuated in the coastal area of the park, and lectures, and small academic conferences that are occasionally organised within the former presidential buildings. The park authorities strongly believe that a responsible and respectful enjoyment of the natural beauty of the park by the local communities is the key to environmental protection and stewardship. Raffaele argues that:
Nature must be accessible to citizens. Clearly, they must do so in a respectful manner, and respecting the rules that are put in place for the safeguard of the environment, but more so if these beauties are shared with citizens among citizens. How can I put it? They learn to love parks more and more, and they learn to take care of and respect them; their general behaviour towards respecting the environment certainly improves. (Raffaele Zortea, interview, 2 August Reference Zortea2023)
As shown by the number of events featuring a musical performance in the festival programme, music constitutes a very important part of this strategy. I asked the organiser why music, specifically: “Because music is one of the artistic means (that is) humanly more appreciated than others, (it is something) that reaches everybody easily” (Raffaele Zortea, interview, 2 August Reference Zortea2023). The park authorities believe that these events have an educational impact on the visitors, although the impact itself is hard to measure. Raffaele argues that the events succeeded in attracting visitors to witness the outstanding natural beauty of the area. In so doing the events constitute a message about co-habitation with the natural world. A message that—according to him—is positively received by citizens.
Musical performances during Viviparco serve a double goal. Firstly they open up a space normally closed to the public. Secondly, by granting access to protected areas, the festival raises the issue of being in nature, proposing an alternative way in which human and non-human beings (including flora and fauna, but also the geological component of the landscape and the local ecosystem in its entirety) can co-exist sustainably.
Park of the Stars and Art in Flight
This and the next section examine events organised by the Italian conservation organisation LIPU (Lega Italiana Protezione Uccelli; Italian League for the Protection of Birds), a non-profit organisation which manages twenty-six oases and reserves throughout Italy and several first-care and recovery centres for the care of wild animals.Footnote 15 While bird protection is one of the main activities of LIPU, birds are also intended as a symbol of wider ecological considerations. LIPU in fact sustains nature conservation in all its activities, safeguarding biodiversity in protected areas and promoting ecological behaviours through several environmental education initiatives. The organisation is made up of a large core of volunteers who, along with specialist operators, engage in various nature conservation and park preservation activities. Their efforts focus on protecting all wildlife, although they are primarily known for their bird conservation initiatives. Birds symbolise their work, as their “presence, songs, flights, and colours represent the beautiful hope for a better future.”Footnote 16
In Tuscany, LIPU manages two recovery centres, located in Florence and Livorno, and two reserves (named oases). The oases are located in Massaciuccoli and Santa Luce. Riserva Naturale del Chiarone (natural reserve of Chiarone) is the official name of the oasis in Massaciuccoli. It constitutes one of the main parts of the greater Natural Park of Migliarino, San Rossore, and Massaciuccoli described previously.Footnote 17 This natural reserve is located on the eastern bank of the Massaciuccoli Lake, a large system of ecologically diverse wetlands located on the coast of northern Tuscany.Footnote 18 There, every year since 1997, the park manager Andrea Fontanelli has organised several events to create engagement and interest among visitors and local communities. The focal point of these events is a festival, Il Parco delle Stelle (The Park of the Stars). The festival name derives from the astronomical phenomena with which the festival days are associated. 10 August is San Lorenzo (Saint Lawrence), according to the Calendar of Saints.Footnote 19 In Italy, the night of San Lorenzo is commonly associated with the sight of shooting stars. Despite being described as stars, the night sky features the Perseids meteor shower (Wu and Williams Reference Wu and Williams1994), which peaked between 10 and 12 August in 2023.Footnote 20
The 2023 festival ran from 10 to 12 August and was divided into two main parts (Figure 6). The first part, Il Parco delle Stelle, included two days of evening explorations of the park, while the second featured a concluding party night hosted in the main area of the park. This latter part was called Arte in Volo: Festival di Creatività e Natura (Art in Flight, Nature and Creativity Festival), again alluding to the importance of birds. The main path across the wetlands is traversed by a woodboard trail which, for the festival, hosted artistic performances. Visitors could enjoy the cool summer night breeze, listen to the nocturnal birds, enjoy the performances, and watch the sky and its astronomical phenomenon from this privileged, low-light pollution area. Most of the performances were of sonic art blended with natural sounds, and they incorporated a variety of musical genres. During the first two days, four groups of fifteen visitors and a few volunteer guides walked through the path at regular intervals. The guides, and volunteers who travelled to the reserve to help with organising the festival, accompanied the visitors on their nocturnal creative path.Footnote 21
Flyers for the events ‘Parco delle Stelle’ (1), and ‘Arte in Volo’ (2) and (3). Source: Facebook.
The creative paths of the first part of the festival included six performances, of which four included musical and sonic elements. In order of appearance, the festival included improvisation on guitar along local birdsongs,Footnote 22 free improvisations on a hanging drum, live painting accompanied by songs, and a theatrical performance on a text by Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi accompanied by original music.Footnote 23 Each group of visitors was guided on a wooden boardwalk across the wetlands at the eastern shore of the lake. The performers were dispersed at various points of the walk and the visitors could enjoy the brief performances, one after the other. In order to avoid distractions, facilitate immersion in the performances and the park, and keep the light pollution under control, visitors were asked to follow some basic rules: all phones must be turned off for the duration of the walk and visitors should remain as silent as possible. Despite these guidelines, both guides and some audience members complained about people either speaking too loudly or trying to use their phone to shed light on the path—otherwise lit only by the moonlight and a few lanterns carried by the guides—or to take some pictures.
In the square at the beginning of the trail (the one that also features the ‘Arte in Volo’ party featured in Figure 7), three telescopes were set up to facilitate the observation of celestial bodies featured in the night sky, including the moon and Saturn. The telescopes were operated by members of amateur local astronomical organisations who volunteered for the occasion in order to spread their love for the sky. Most of the lights in the square were turned off to reduce the impact on the lenses of the telescopes and facilitate the observation. This helped in creating a dimmed atmosphere for the creative paths. From this area of the park, at the end of the excursion, visitors could opt to visit the lake on a boat where they could observe the night sky from a point of even less light pollution. The boat was operated in partnership with LIPU. While the option of sailing and viewing the night sky could seem enticing for some, others raised concerns about the sound and air pollution caused by the boat which conflicted with the rest of the experience.
The main area at the dock during the last night of the festival Arte in Volo, 12 August 2023. Photo by author.
On the third day, the festival transforms into Arte in Volo, a stark contrast with Parco delle Stelle. For the final event, a stage was set up, food was cooked and sold by the reserve volunteers and by a few food trucks. Every performance happened within the premises of the main square of the lake docks in the village of Massaciuccoli, right in front of the house owned by the organisation (Figure 7).
The music featured on the last day was very different from the more intimate experience that characterised the first two days of the festival. On the final night, the performances were concentrated on a single stage rather than being scattered along the nature trail. These performances were best suited to entertain the visitors during a very convivial situation, rather than being an acoustic feature to mediate the immersion in the environment. The two main acts of the 2023 edition of the festival featured a blues trio and a groovy Brazilian band.
While the visitors could still visit the lake on a boat and watch the stars, during the final event sociality was the focal point. Luigi D’Alessandro, the artistic director of the festival—but also a musician, music enthusiast, and long-term oasis volunteer—insists that the social aspect is of fundamental importance for this event:
The idea is to make the place live in a different way, from some non-obvious perspectives. (…) In this, the role of the art is, I think, to understand the relationship that exists between the management of the natural reserve—or the management of nature, and the fundamental social aspect. That oasis, without the strong social mentality that lives among the volunteers, would not be what it is. That is its strength, the fact that this active volunteerism exists, is committed and immerses itself in nature, makes everything different and it is an added value. (Luigi D’Alessandro, interview, 28 August Reference D’Alessandro2023)
The last day—Arte in Volo—has a strong impact on the local community too, as it gathers together within the oasis premises the volunteers, workers, citizens of Massaciuccoli and Massarosa, and visitors. Luigi defines it as “a street partyFootnote 24 in all respects, still including an artistic aspect, although with a different artistic connotation (than the first two days of the festival)” (Luigi D’Alessandro, interview, 28 August Reference D’Alessandro2023).
On the impact of the festival, both Andrea and Luigi acknowledged that the relationship between the local LIPU branch and the local communities has not always been so bright. When the park was instituted, hunting became suddenly forbidden in an area where it was very popular. Members of the local community took this badly and allegedly tried to find a way to have the organisation expelled from the area. They burned the house used as a base by LIPU personnel and the wooden boards used as a path on the wetland, and sent other intimidatory messages, like the vivid presence of armed hunters within the oasis boundaries (Andrea Fontanelli, interview, 31 August Reference Fontanelli2023). Luigi gives credit to Andrea’s diplomatic abilities to have soothed the community, which happened also as a consequence of many volunteers and other people interested in the oasis’ activities taking residency in the area:
We give back to this territory an idea of an open oasis, where we (the organisation and the local community) can meet socially. This is the strength of these events, and I must say that Andrea has had the vision of nurturing this social aspect. In some places, there is no such welcoming and open leadership, and they are closed and unattractive. (This) oasis from this point of view has the strength to communicate a live sociality, that attracts people. (Luigi D’Alessandro, interview, 28 August Reference D’Alessandro2023)
According to Luigi, the festival had an important role in bridging the conservation organisation with the local community too:
Initially, the festival was like a fair, and the bands chosen did not have any particular impact. After we shifted to a more low-cost idea for the festival, reducing unnecessary costs, and creating a different aesthetic, with just a small wooden stage (for the performers). We called independent, emerging, local bands, from Massarosa, and the surroundings. Bands that brought people with them, people who learnt about the festival and the organisation, and who eventually decided to do their social service volunteering at the reserve and so on. On a communication level, meaning attracting youth, I believe that the festival helped a lot. Surely it does not help to convert the most hardened hunter, but in that sense, we are also doing some more political work. (Luigi D’Alessandro, interview, 28 August Reference Fontanelli2023)
Even though Il Parco delle Stelle and Arte in Volo are very different from each other, the two events succeed in bringing diverse audiences to the protected areas, thanks to the combined effort of the organisers, the volunteers, the performers, and the local community, who actively promote the events and raise awareness about LIPU and its conservation work. In doing so, the organisation promotes a vision of nature that is accessible to the public—not something to be isolated, but to be experienced. The oasis has thus become a place where people can respectfully engage with the natural environment through music.
Song of the Lake
Roughly 50 km south of Massaciuccoli, and a few kilometres west from the village where I spent part of my childhood, lies the Lake of Santa Luce and its related LIPU conservation oasis. The lake is an artificial industrial basin created in 1960 by the Belgian multinational chemical company Solvay. They blocked the river Fine with a dam in order to secure hydric resources required by the various manufacturing and cooling processes during the dry and hot summer months (Cheli and Luzzati Reference Cheli and Luzzati2008). Silvia Mascagni is the manager of the oasis and coordinates all its activities, including the actions taken towards the conservation of the local ecosystem and the monitoring of the wildlife. Silvia also oversees the environmental education activities and the few performances staged within the natural reserve boundaries.
Mostly, the activities organised here relate to birdwatching, but sometimes, Silvia accepts proposals for organising different types of events, especially those that stimulate a holistic engagement with the natural world. I contacted Silvia sometime around February 2023, when I submitted a music portfolio consisting of a few tracks of free guitar improvisation along local birdsongs and asked whether there would be a chance to co-organise an event in the oasis. We agreed on meeting to discuss upon my arrival in Italy. During that initial meeting, she vetted me somehow, trying to understand what my real intent was, and how my performance would have benefited her work.
Silvia was not new to this type of approach, and she was quite keen to let people do performances in the nature reserve. In the past, she gave space to the most diverse events, dance and yoga workshops, holistic ceremonies and celebrations, and a few performances. One of the most significant events was named Il Canto degli Alberi (the song of the trees). This event, organised a few times in the past, features a device with two electrodes placed somewhere on the surface of a tree. The forest and its soundscapes have been fascinating human beings since at least the late nineteenth century (Allen Reference Allen, Allen and Dawe2016). Some authors and artists have explored acoustic communication in plants more thoroughly, and how they might react to the sonic environment from bioacoustic (Gagliano, Mancuso, and Robert Reference Gagliano, Mancuso and Robert2012; Gagliano Reference Gagliano2013), and artistic (Vélez Reference Vélez2024) standpoints. However, this particular device does not actually isolate or amplify any bioacoustics signal emitted from plants and trees, but rather converts the surface electric resistance of plants and trees into a midi signal, and then into sound.Footnote 25
Considering my artistic focus on listening and exchanging with the environment from a sonic point of view, Silvia thought of introducing me to her friend Mara Sardi, a practitioner of sound healing and meditation who conducted several events in the oasis. We decided to organise a performance of free improvisation which actively engages and responds to features of the soundscape, especially the birds and their songs and calls. We named this event Il Canto del Lago (the song of the lake) (Figure 8) after the main feature of the area. The event lasted about three hours. Silvia decided that the maximum number of participants would be around fifteen people to minimise the impact on the delicate ecosystem. She argued that greater numbers walking in the area were likely to scare the wildlife or damage wildflowers and weeds. The actual performance was very short, only about 20 minutes, and it was preceded by birdwatching and a silent walk to attune to the various sounds of the place. The performance was followed by a discussion concerning sound as a means of animal communication, environmental education, and its role within ornithology.
The author and Mara Sardi performing during the event “Il Canto Del Lago” at the LIPU Oasis in Santa Luce, 7 May 2023. Photo by Silvia Mascagni.
Besides getting people closer to the natural environment of the oasis, these events have a very practical purpose. They serve to get more subscriptions to the newsletter and to the main organisation, LIPU, which mainly relies on donations and subscription fees to fund all the operations within their conservation areas. Income generated by these events also helps to:
Sustain all the costs of ordinary maintenance and environmental education. For example, we need new poles for the panels and signposts, we need to make new information panels, and we need maintenance tools and stationery. (…) We need more plants for the trail, and in case there is a landslide we need to call a company to move the soil. (Silvia Mascagni, interview, 14 May Reference Mascagni2023)
Individual donations to the organisation are directed to the national LIPU branch, where they are re-invested in national projects, and distributed into the budgets of conservation oases and wildlife recovery centres. Every oasis management team has a duty to organise ticketed activities to increase local income streams, which are necessary to sustain the practical everyday needs of each LIPU branch, such as those highlighted by Silvia. The Oasis in Santa Luce is smaller than the one in Massaciuccoli, with only one person employed by the organisation and just a handful of volunteers. Their budget is often the main issue faced with the organisation of such events, especially concerning promotion and communication. Silvia reflected on this event, and their budget struggles:
The problems are always concerning the promotion (of the events). Without having a budget to pay for the promotion, everything is done freely and everything is done thanks to the kindness of the people, press agencies, and promotion platforms. (…) If we had a budget (we could afford to pay for promotion on) newspapers, regional newspapers between the provinces of Pisa and Livorno, and most importantly, the radio, online newspapers, and the platforms that promote local tourism online. (…) With €5,000 we could afford to publicise two or three events. (Silvia Mascagni, interview, 14 May Reference Mascagni2023)
The event was a success, to the point that we decided to replicate it a few months later in the summer. The new date was set for Saturday the 29 of July 2023. Nobody booked, and we were forced to cancel the event. The Oasis of Santa Luce does not have the budget for massive promotion operations that often characterise events organised in other venues that are solely entertainment-focused, and the summer is a highly competitive season in the area, resulting in the presence of several well-publicised events every night. Getting people there is often a problem too, as its access is located on a road that mainly serves industrial estates and farms. Despite the cancellation of the second event, the first one remained a success, for me, as a performer, for Silvia, for Mara, and for the audience. Il Canto del Lago bridged art and nature, promoting a deeper connection with the environment while supporting LIPU’s conservation efforts. Despite challenges, the event highlighted the potential of creative initiatives to inspire both ecological awareness and community engagement.
Conclusion: Music Festivals and Events as a Sustainable Ecotourism Practice
This article examined four ecotourism events and festivals featuring music performances, which attracted diverse audiences drawn to the unique blend of music, environmentalist agencies, and natural areas. All the events were organised by individuals and groups deeply committed to preserving the locations where the performances took place, and the environmental impact of each activity was carefully assessed. The organisers of Musica sulle Apuane are mountaineers and alpinists, those behind Viviparco are stewards of one of the last wild areas in the region and country, and LIPU is primarily a wildlife conservation organisation. To minimise impact, participant numbers were limited for the LIPU and Viviparco events. While Musica sulle Apuane did not set participant limits, they were required to produce an acoustic impact statement before each season. Additionally, the presence of Alpinist Club guides helped to ensure that all participants respected the environment.
Budgeting is the primary challenge for these events. In the cases I observed, there was a clear contrast between larger organizations and smaller ones. Larger groups, such as the San Rossore, Migliarino, and Massaciuccoli park authorities and Musica sulle Apuane, had access to local and regional funding. This allowed them to print flyers and promote their events through various online and offline platforms. In contrast, smaller organisations, like the Santa Luce Oasis, struggled to compete in the busy summer events market of the region.
Three audience members I interviewed who attended Il Canto del Lago came especially for the performance because they were interested in either my music or the other performer’s sound meditation practice. While all three lived within 30 km of the protected area, and have heard about LIPU and their conservation activities in this area, they had never visited this oasis before. All three expressed a desire to visit Santa Luce’s Oasis again in the future.Footnote 26 Eight people I interviewed who attended the two nights of Il parco delle stelle in Massaciuccoli responded quite positively too. Five said that they and the people with them had never been in the park before. They were attracted by the advertisements of the musical events found online. Three who had been to the oasis before, visited it again intentionally on the days of the event to attend the performances. One, attracted by the presence of music, was disappointed that there was no European classical music included in the programme and appreciated the organisation but not the choices of genre.Footnote 27 Cultural geographer Leonieke Bolderman argued that music tourism stimulates the imagination of a place in humans. Music maps a place within one’s mythscape (2020), thus influencing the individual affective ties that each of us develops to specific places, a concept known as topophilia (Tuan Reference Tuan1974:92–93). In this sense, from the interviews, it emerged that those who never visited the oasis before expressed the desire to visit again and learn more about the conservation activities conducted by LIPU.
Transmitting a sense of care for a place is the motive behind the organisation of these events and festivals, as the organisations included here are firstly organisations that protect natural areas and promote sustainable and zero-impact activities. If the organisers’ focus was on pure entertainment, and with no personal interest in the ecological care for the place, the situation would be different. For example, the Jova Beach Party, a series of summer concerts organised by the Tuscan pop singer Jovanotti on several beaches around the Italian coastline, has been widely criticised by the geologist and ecologist Mario Tozzi, who argued that a festival of that dimension—with more than 45,000 people attending concerts on several Italian beaches, some of which are protected natural areasFootnote 28—will facilitate coastline erosion and deteriorate the local ecosystem (Tozzi Reference Tozzi2022). In that case, entertainment was the sole purpose of the performance. The beach was used only as a stage, not as an environment to be promoted or protected. The event did not aim to raise environmental awareness or encourage a sense of stewardship for the location among the attendees.
In the case of the events organised by LIPU, the musical performances also contributed to securing more funding for conservation activities, through either the direct sale of tickets or access to a major budget made available by a parent organisation (Silvia Mascagni, interview, 20 August Reference Mascagni2023). In the case of Musica sulle Apuane, the small insurance fee required by the local guides organisation (CAI) serves to fund all trail maintenance activities and cover other administrative expenses.
All the events had strong educational purposes, thus relating to another important aspect of ecotourism. However, the educational aspect often relied on the personal experiences of the visitors rather than formal instruction from the guides. Visitors learned not only about the geological features of the landscape and the biological elements of the local ecosystems, but they also gained the ability to recognise and assess the irreversible impact of human activities on Earth. Additionally, they could witness some of the great changes of the Anthropocene with their own eyes. Musica sulle Apuane successfully attracted visitors to the mountains, helping them appreciate the beauty and history of the area, while also highlighting the profound environmental impact caused by the global demand for marble. Viviparco opened up the most protected—and fragile—part of the nature reserve to visitors through music, allowing them to experience a form of responsible coexistence between humans and nature. The two events organised in Massaciuccoli effectively conveyed the importance of conserving the natural lake to local communities, using art and entertainment to foster direct engagement. Finally, Il canto del lago temporarily transformed an industrial basin into a space for ecological connection between human beings and wildlife, thus questioning the boundaries between natural and artificial spaces and materials.
As the events explored here bridged humans with a specific portion of the natural environment through music, they constitute ecomusicological case studies of events aimed at the sustainable appreciation of the landscape. All events detailed in this article can be classified as ecotourist activities. In fact, all included nature-based, non-consumptive, experiences through which the visitors learnt about places and local biological and geological features as well as conservation and other environmental issues. When present, the revenue from the events served to self-sustain the artistic activities and cover other expenses regarding conservation and maintenance of the areas.
Referring back to the silent areas mentioned in the introduction, the events used music to restore a voice to natural spaces that had been somehow silenced by extractivist and industrial activities, restricted public access, and anthropocentric relationships with nature. The music drew people in and evoked emotional responses to these places. All these events and festivals introduced very particular parts of the Tuscan natural landscape to people who probably would not have visited otherwise, either due to a lack of an element of attraction within the natural areas or due to restricted access. Musical performances opened new spaces in these areas enabling the public to visit them respectfully, creating a unique space where the aesthetic appreciation of the performances and the landscape were intertwined, thus, hopefully, enabling a mindful and not harmful presence of humans in the natural world.
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