Viva La Festa Italiana 2024
There’s no party like an Italian festa!
For seven years now, Festa Italiana, the UK’s biggest Italian festival, has been growing from strength to strength and we’re proud to have been delivering the press and socials for four of them. This was my third year on the ground and it might have been the best one yet!
Created by the family behind Manchester-favourite Salvi’s, Festa Italiana is the UK’s biggest annual celebration of all the best things Italian, taking in authentic food, drink and culture.
Championing Manchester’s vibrant communities and telling their stories has always been essential to our work and Festa Italiana is just another heartwarming reminder that we all speak the same language. It’s been an absolute pleasure telling the stories of the hard-working people of Italy, who bring a slice of their culture year upon year.
Working with the Festa team, festival partners and participants, we delivered a fun, community-centred campaign, building on the success from previous years. The incredible ethos of the festival and its colourful characters secured a series of features on BBC Radio Manchester and London One Radio.
Insanely fun, and absolutely bonkers – that’s how the Festa goes, and our dedicated social media team smashed the challenge of delivering outstanding live content.
We had it all – from a cheeky lemonade stand which caused a furore, to the ultimate (chaotic) Festa tour, delivered by the iconic Gennaro Contaldo and festival creator Maurizio Cecco, to breaking down language barriers and navigating the crowds to ask the vendors the most pressing of questions – does pineapple go on pizza.
Viva La Cucina!
When I tell you this one is going down in history – I mean it.
Inspired by the hugely popular Amalfi Coast extravaganza, Salvi’s introduced Manchester’s craziest Italian cooking class, right in the heart of the festival. Making pasta, catching a flying pizza dough disk, dancing, piping cannoli, and, of course, the return of the viral big pan, all made for a truly unforgettable night.
Guess who was there to keep you updated via live stories? All while dodging flying dough balls, crashing the dancefloor with the stunning pastaia Carmela Sereno Hayes, and singing along to Napoli anthems.
If, ‘the harder the work, the sweeter the reward’, then the campaign we created must have been absolutely scrumptious, but the proof is in the pudding!
We also generated 35 pieces of targeted coverage, across key titles like the Manchester Evening News, Manchester’s Finest, Secret Manchester, Manchester Wire, The Manc, About Manchester, Creative Tourist, Taste of Manchester, and Yahoo! News UK, alongside a hugely successful social media partnership with Eat MCR.
The social media strategy was aimed at raising awareness, maximising engagement and capitalising on the skyrocketing exposure during the festival. We created multiple social media collaborations with key Festa figures like Gennaro Contaldo, various performers and partners.
So if you’re as passionate about Italian culture as we are, have a taste of this year’s Festa Italiana.
As the Italians say, ci vediamo alla Festa Italiana 2025!
Evelina x
📸 by Simone Ronconi
Celebrating Italy at Festa Italiana 2023
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
Happy First Birthday, Salvi’s Deansgate Square!
Authentic Italian food and drink, classic gelato, a sunny soundtrack and top Manchester press and content creators – sounds like a Salvi’s birthday party! We’ve just arrived home after a huge Italian knees-up celebrating a year of the Deansgate Square site, where we took care of all things press and socials. Let’s dive in!
Maurizio Cecco’s brainchild has grown into a go-to hot spot not only for residents of the luxury development, but also for anyone craving a slice of Italy right in the heart of Manchester, so celebrating the very first birthday had to be a grande family affair, done the Salvi’s way.
In the lead up to the event, we worked with the team at Salvi’s to build awareness across press and socials, followed by capturing some live social media content on the day.
We filled Salvi’s private dining space with over 30 of the city’s leading media and content creators who were delighted to try Maurizio’s exclusive brand-new specials. Our campaign resulted in some excellent pieces of coverage with main Manchester outlets like The Manc, Manchester’s Finest, Creative Tourist, About Manchester, Secret Manchester and Manchester World all covering the big birthday bash.
The content creators also immersed their audiences into the sapore d’Italia (the taste of Italy) with a series of stunning posts, reels, and over 40 live stories capturing the fiery spirit of the party, Salvi’s style.
Loyal customers were welcomed to the festa-a-la-Salvi’s as a “thank you” from the family behind Manchester’s favourite Italian restaurant.
One of the highlights of the night was an exciting new collaboration between Salvi’s and luxury ice-cream parlour Grandpa Greene’s – another local family-owned business, which delivered a special birthday gelato flavour. We revealed the big news via Salvi’s social media channels right before the event, building into the anticipation.
This is not our first rodeo with the Ceccos, as we look after the press and socials for all three of their venues. Most recently, we also announced the return of Festa Italiana 2023 – UK’s biggest Italian festival delivered by none other than Salvi’s. Bringing some of the very best local Italian food, drink, and entertainment together, the Festa will take place between 25th-27th August in Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens and, honestly, we couldn’t be more thrilled to work on it for the third year in a row.
This was definitely one to remember for both Salvi’s and us. Saluti to many more in the future!
Evelina x
Canyon Del Muerto
Just last night, we attended and managed press and social media for the very special advance, exclusive screening of brand-new feature film Canyon Del Muerto, directed by Coerte Voorhees, starring Tom Felton (Harry Potter) and BAFTA winner Abigail Lawrie (The Crown), which also featured a Q&A with the cast and director.
Canyon Del Muerto is a stunning historical epic and the important true story of Ann Axtell Morris, North America’s first female archaeologist who worked with her husband Earl Morris (the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character created by George Lucas) and the Navajo in the 1920s, to uncover America’s first civilization – the Anasazi.
Ann struggled to prove herself in a male-dominated profession, but she was overshadowed by her husband’s accomplishments and virtually left out of the history books.
Their trek across the magnificent Southwestern United States was fraught with danger as their Navajo guides discouraged them from their descent into the canyon, which they believed was cursed.
The incredible supporting cast includes Hanako Footman (The Crown), Academy Award Winner Wes Studi (Dances with wolves, Last of the Mohicans), Academy Award Nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), James Hillier (The Crown), and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (The Queen’s Gambit, How They Run).
With the importance and type of subject matter, and the advanced and exclusive nature of the screening, we spoke to a very targeted selection of media and generated interest within a very specific sector. In the audience, we had The Express, The Guardian, New Scientist, Current World Archaeology, Minerva, and British Archaeology, with an in-depth feature on the Q&A running in The Express just a couple of days later.
We looked after the press in attendance and made sure they got what they needed from the evening, and in addition we devised and managed birth of the Canyon Del Muerto official Instagram account, as well as the gathering of all social media content inclusive of all cast and director interviews and audience vox-pops before and after the screening.
It has been a brilliant journey working with the Canyon Del Muerto team and we cannot wait to see what’s next for this hugely important story.
Tom x
Pictures by: Shoib Ahmad and Olivia Ross
Festa Italiana 2022
If you had an incredible Neapolitan pizza in one hand and a tangy Limoncello spritz in the other, nodding along to “We No Speak Americano” under the bank holiday weekend sun, then you must have been at Festa Italiana along with Tom, Hannah and me, Evelina, from the Sundae press and social teams.
Entering the grounds of the UK’s biggest Italian festival felt like a spontaneous trip to Italy and it was our mission to take all Festa social media followers and members of the Manchester press along for the ride! From authentic Italian street food and drink, to traditional music and dance sessions, live cooking demos and pasta-making classes, Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens were transformed into a lively Festival Piazza.
Brought to you by the team behind Manchester’s family run favourite Salvi’s, Festa Italiana is now in its fifth year! It is inspired by the city’s very own Italian community and traditional Italian festivals (with a healthy sprinkling of Mancunian charm), and caters to everyone looking to experience the best of Italy on their doorstep.
We got to sharpen our cooking skills thanks to some of the Maestri of Italian cuisine who performed a culinary spectacle for the awestruck crowds. Fronted by Salvi’s owner and Festa head honcho Maurizio Cecco, accompanied by daughter-in-chef, Sienna, the live cookery demos featured free classes from legendary chefs Gennaro Contaldo, Giancarlo Caldesi and Aldo Zilli, leaving no belly rumbling and no parmesan ungrated.
While Aldo reminisced about locking Prince Edward in his restaurant back in his “heyday” (and performed a demo of cooking fish the Italian way), Great British Bake Off 2021 winner and ex-engineer Giuseppe Dell’Anno led those of all abilities through the precise science of baking!.
Food was the heart of it all, and many smiling Festa-goers even received an impromptu live performance by celebrity chef Gennaro Contaldo, alongside Italian band Compagnia SoleLuna on the festival’s main stage!.
The crowd of happy faces radiated togetherness. We welcomed members of the press and content creators to Manchester’s “Little Italy” for a chance to immerse themselves in the spirit of Italian celebration. Calorosa, as singer Lina described it – a hearty atmosphere, spreading through the thousands of people enjoying themselves on the festival grounds.
The most curious faces were next to a big table under the shade of the trees, where pastaia (aka: pasta-making specialist) Carmela Sereno Hayes taught the smallest of cooks how to make their very own pasta from scratch.
“It’s the easiest thing ever!” says Maurizio, while we sweat over a piece of farfalle and the children at Gennaro Contaldo’s masterclass folded a batch of ravioli.
Carmela and Maurizio also cooked up the magnifico feast for the exclusive chef table dinner, which hosted Festa’s special guests over hearty authentic meals, served over the finest Italian wines in conversation with the award-winning authors and chefs. Hearts and bellies were filled.
The Festa stage showcased a variety of performers, lifting the crowd off their feet and into the spirit of Italian celebration. People spun in circles holding hands, while children and adults alike learned how to perform traditional Italian dances.
If you ever wondered why the festival spans over three days, then the answer is: So you have enough time to eat all the cannoli, arancini, gelato, pizza, pasta and the rest of the mouth-watering authentic Italian food the festival has to offer (including a few giant cheese wheels)!
We love working on the Festa Italiana! Apart from enjoying a well-deserved cacio e pepe, we secured lots of brilliant pieces of national and regional coverage over a spread of online, print and broadcast media outlets such as The i, BBC Radio Manchester, iNews, Manchester Evening News, Time Out, Creative Tourist, Manchester’s Finest, The Manc, About Manchester, and many more!
Leading our social media campaign with live updates of all the exciting moments on the grid and stories, collaborations with the chefs and vendors and capturing the Festa spirit on Reels, we managed to reach over 200k accounts over all social media channels, cooking up a storm of positive engagement and hundreds of new followers!
In the words of none other than Gennaro Contaldo himself, “meravigliosa”!
(translation: marvellous)
Evelina x