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30 September1934
Grape Festival
Author
Anonimo / Fondo Museo Guatelli
Format
16mm
Duration
2'06''
Credits
Flute by Eva Manzolini, Violin by Pietro Manzolini, Re-elaboration by Michele Manzolini

Milan, Sunday 30 September 1934. While the city awaits the visit of Mussolini, who will arrive in a few days, today is the Festa dell'uva (Grape Festival), an annual festival strongly desired by the Head of Government to 'exalt one of the most typical products of our land. Since the local vineyards were destroyed by phylloxera, grapes are brought in from all over Italy. The feast was captured on 16mm film by an anonymous amateur filmmaker and reported the next day by the 'Corriere della Sera': "The fifth Grape Festival took place yesterday in a blaze of sunshine and colour at the Giardini Pubblici, transformed into a large vineyard, thanks to the large ripe bunches hanging from the improvised vine shoots, which sprang up as if by magic during the night. And everywhere was animation and merriment, everywhere a joyous swarming of the crowd, a spread of trills from happy children, their little arms laden with juicy bunches. Triumph of grapes, of all the grapes that the vineyards of Italy produce, from the regions of Alto Adige to the lands of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily.' It seems as if we are witnessing the festival in this accurate description, but with the images of the cameraman, it is as if we were really there with the participants, despite the fact that from here you cannot taste even one grape of the half-kilo bunches distributed to the crowd. For a total of over two hundred thousand kilograms of grapes consumed, the Corriere estimates: a great success, the umpteenth, for the event strongly desired by the Head of Government.

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