The most famous Italian song contest was first held in 1951. Organised by Rai Turin, it extended over three evenings and was broadcast live on the radio from the Salone delle Feste of the Casino. The first editions were broadcast only by radio, but in 1955, the contest began to gain popularity and TV decided to take ownership of it. Ever since, the history of the Sanremo Festival has gone hand in hand with the history of Italian television. The Sanremo Festival marked an important chapter not only in the history of music and television but also in Italy's social history.

The photojournalists of the Publifoto Agency realised the importance of the event and, during the years in which it was held in the Casino of Sanremo (1951-1976), took around 15,000 photographs of the Festival. The exhibition displays a collection of photographs from the Publifoto Intesa Sanpaolo Archive, focuses on the years when the Festival was hosted by the Casino of Sanremo before moving permanently to the Ariston Theatre, and lingers in only a few cases on images of the artists' performances on stage, concentrating instead on the various aspects of what went on when they weren’t on stage: the time the singers spent waiting in the stalls during rehearsals; the walkabouts of the artists (including foreign guests) around the town of Sanremo; the signing of autographs for the public; the artists in the make-up room; the audience; the artists portrayed in curious situations, but also the orchestra, the jury, the press room. An album of often unusual photographs, showing the artists away from the spotlight, in the everyday moments that accompanied the hectic days of the Festival, with a naivety and immediacy that make them seem surprisingly familiar. They are photographs that offer a picture of Italy as a country that couldn't wait to put the war and poverty behind it, entrusting a new-found light-heartedness to music but also, as in the case of the song “Vola colomba”, a desire for vindication with regard to the dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia over the Venezia-Giulia area. The soundtrack of the American Liberation Army had been the boogie-woogie, music filled with excitement but unknown to us. Now it was time to create a completely Italian one, linked to the melodic tradition and “bel canto”. The title of the exhibition recalls the young age of a festival in its infancy and of a growing Italy.

The exhibition is curated by Aldo Grasso and, thanks to the media partnership with Rai, is enriched by video-sound contributions in collaboration with Rai Teche.

To coincide with the exhibition, the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive, will publish the catalogue of all the photographs produced by the Publifoto Agency online

On the occasion of the exhibition is presented a rich schedule, for the Wednesday's public program #INSIDE, with talks and events related to the theme