Buona Festa Italiana, Manchester!
We’re back from another glorious weekend at the UK’s biggest Italian festival, held right in the heart of Manchester, so listen up!
Brought together by our long-standing friends, the team at family-run Italian Salvi’s, Festa Italiana has become the epitome of Manchester’s Italian community and heritage.
Championing collaboration and community over competition, Salvi’s owner Maurizio Cecco set off to bring the city’s best Italian food, drink and culture together in a festival which is now a three day celebration taking place over the August bank holiday weekend.
Now in its sixth year, Festa Italiana has combined the traits of a traditional Italian festival with a healthy portion of Mancunian charm to become a much-anticipated event for people all over the country. And we’ve had the honour to join the ride, managing the press and social media campaign for three years so far.
The festival kicked off with Festa Italiana della Donna – a day-long celebration of female chefs, championing their outstanding work within the male-dominated world of professional cooking, showcasing pastaia Carmela Sereno-Hayes, award-winning chef Sofia Gallo, and Salvi’s very own head chef, Valentina Ambrosino.
Do you hear the applause? We had a full house for Italian cooking legends Gennaro Contaldo and Giancarlo Caldesi, alongside Maurizio himself, while master baker and Great British Bake Off 2021 winner Giuseppe Dell’Anno put the cherry on top of the spectacular Festa line-up.
The classic Mancunian downpour did not dampen the Festa spirits. Vendors, chefs and performers worked around the clock to once again bring a slice of Italy to festival-goers, leaving hearts and bellies full.
We worked alongside iconic Italian brewer Birrificio Angelo Poretti to execute the press and social media campaign for La Grande Tavola, which gathered local and national press and content creators to a 80-person meal under the Festa stars, cooked and presented by festival creator Maurizio himself.
The grande Festa famiglia (the big Festa family) was the core of our campaign. Our press campaign put a well-deserved spotlight on the Italian vendors who shared their stories with the world and proved just why Festa Italiana is key to empowering the local Italian community. The human stories from the festival secured four features on BBC Radio Manchester and placed in various shows and bulletins on Radio One London, Capital Manchester, Hits Manchester and XS Manchester.
We also secured coverage from the likes of The Manc, Manchester’s Finest, Manchester Evening News, Creative Tourist, I Love Manchester, Secret Manchester and more, with media outlets also reporting live from the festival piazza on their socials.
And as social media platforms grow, so did our campaign. Telling the story of the big Festa family was a key focus of this year’s campaign, which resulted in reaching 396k accounts and brought in a 40% increase in following across multiple platforms.
We worked with local and national brands, the Festa organisers, chefs, vendors and participants, and a wealth of Manchester’s biggest content creators in order to celebrate all things Italian for yet another extremely successful year.
AND Maurizio even went viral! Talk about a busy weekend…
Who’s ready for Festa Italiana 2024?
Evelina x
📸: Florindo Albaphotos
