For years Puglia has always been told the same way. The sea that seems Caribbean, trulli, small ears hand-drawn by the ladies in the streets of Bari Vecchia. A beautiful image, sometimes true, but incomplete. Because from some summer to this part, those who come down here also come for another reason, and it has to do with music.
There is a wave that crosses the region from June to September, and passes by masserie that become dancefloor, stone quarries transformed into natural amphitheaters, beaches where the DJ set ends with dawn. Puglia entered the European circuit of the club culture, and did so without sacrificing what it is. In fact, using just what it is: the landscape, the light and the slow time as part of the experience.
The name that paved the way is Polifonic. Born in Valle d’Itria, the festival has arrived this year at its eighth edition and has been imposed as one of the most important and expected events in Europe, of those that the boys of Berlin and London mark on the calendar months before. From July 22 to 26, five days distributed on three locations that tell the sense of the project, the Masseria Capece, Cala Maka and Le Palme Beach Club, with the music that moves from the countryside to the sea following the rhythm of the day.
The theme chosen for 2026 is called “Sensory Bloom”, an invitation to let sound, light and space expand perception. That’s how it may seem like an almost empty formula, but who was there knows that it works exactly this way. You dance inside a stone quarry, the Stone Stage, with the walls that postpone the bottom on. You spend the night in the farm and end on Sundays by the sea, with the last trace that fades while the sun goes down.
And that’s where the point is. Puglia did not copy Ibiza or Berlin but understood its competitive advantage: the context. Around this he built a model in which music dialogues with the territory instead of consuming it. The masserie remain masserie, the quarries remain caves, the food is true, and the locals do not look at all this from the outside. The result is a different tourism, young, international, that arrives for the line-up and departs having discovered a piece of Italy that he did not know.
For those who want to understand what we are talking about, just look at the names that this year pass from the Itria Valley. Sixty-three act in a billboard, among historical pioneers, clubbing icons and new trajectories of the global scene.
The most anticipated moment brings the signature of two legends of Detroit, Carl Craig and Moodymann, which are found in a b2b destined to remain. Next to them come Sama’ Abdulhadi, among the most important voices of the Middle Eastern scene, Djrum with its electronics that crosses techno, breakbeat and ambient, and Tiga, which brings the energy of international clubbing. Also live, with A Guy Called Gerald, a pioneer of acid house, Chet Faker that interweaves electronics and songwriting, Shackleton and Voices From The Lake, called to open days in masseria from the Stone Stage.
And then there is the part that the nerds of the club cultures have always been waiting for, that of pure selectors. UFO, Craig Richards, Job Job Jobse, Lena Willikens, Prosumer, Ivan Smagghe, Nicolas Lutz, Peach, Chloé Caillet, Cinthie, DJ Marcelle, Donato Dozzy, Pearson Sound. A constellation that alone explains why Polifonic ended up in the festival lists to do at least once in life.
Puglia dancing, in short, took its place.
L’articolo Apulia dancing, between masserie and stone quarries, the new capital of electronic music comes from IlNewyorkese.
