Exploring Tabù: Mittelfest 2025 Programme Announced
Our EFA Member returns to Cividale del Friuli with the theme TABÙ, featuring 38 performances across two festivals: Mittelyoung (15 to 18 May) and Mittelfest (18 to 27 July), including world premieres, bold new productions and young talents from across Europe.
Are we actually free to move beyond the cage of thought, of tradition, of acquired and unspoken norms, even before the written ones? What are the unspoken conditioning factors that pull the strings of our being in the world and determine the character of a civilisation? With these questions, the exploration of the theme TABÙ (TABOO) begins, giving life to the XXXIV edition of Mittelfest - a multidisciplinary festival of theatre, music, dance and circus for the countries of Central Europe and the Balkans, based in Cividale del Friuli.
This is how Mittelfest Artistic Director, Giacomo Pedini, explains the theme that inspired him for the programme: "Taboos have to do with the boundaries that a civilisation sets for itself, even before the written law or the given word. They mark the border between what is sacred and what is forbidden, between what is right and what is wrong. Today, Europe is experiencing great trauma, which entails the very shifting of its boundaries, so I felt an urgency to explore them. This will be done with several shows and different languages, to probe what is repressed, socially and privately, and sometimes to break through these boundaries."
Mittelfest returns to Cividale del Friuli from 18 to 27 July 2025 to present 29 artistic projects from 15 countries, including 19 world or Italian premieres and 6 productions/ co-productions. From intimate performances to grand open-air concerts, stories from the present and the past, popular events and a focus on family projects, Mittelfest blends established names with emerging voices, styles, genres and languages, probing the limits of our taboos. Highlights include Tosca and the FVG Orchestra’s Disney-themed Cartoon Night, Malika Ayane with Orchestra Corelli, Argo directed by Serena Sinigaglia, and music from Divanhana, Lay This Drum!, Gugutke and Shkodra Elektronike featuring Albania’s 2025 Eurovision artists.
Since its inception 5 years ago, Mitteyoung, Mitteleuropa under-30 festival, is one of the most original features that Mittelfest brings to the panorama of Italian and European festivals, to give audiences the chance to see a generation on stage and, at the same time, to give actual productive support to young people.
9 shows by artists under 30 have landed at Mittelyoung 2025, including music, theatre, dance and circus, from 5 countries (Italy, Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Romania) after an open call that attracted 182 applications from 22 countries. Among the under-30 curatores, five have been included in the jury through an open call, and all together they selected the 9 shows of the young festival, 3 of which will be selected for the main festival. The prize awarded by a jury of experts is confirmed for 2025. The jury members, called upon to evaluate and endorse Mittelyoung most interesting proposals, are Ales Novak, director of Bornistkovo Festival in Maribor, Matilde Vigna and Roberto Canziani.
Throughout the year, Mittelfest goes on under the name of Mittelland with events that give continuity to the festival and identify it as a bridge between European collaborations and local realities. Mittelfest is also part of the celebrations of GO2025! - Nova Gorica and Gorizia European Capital of Culture with the project Inabili alla morte - Nezmožni umreti (Unfit for death), featuring its final performances between Gorizia and Nova Gorica from 16 to 18 September.