Collesano Roots Fest

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At the same time, the Festival lights up the Municipality with activities related to its treasures, its traditions and the
identity heritage with a strong involvement of the community: in particular, 4
identity treasures of the Municipality with a guided/theatrical tour by the young storytellers, in costumes
of the Middle Ages, and of the elderly at the ancient seventeenth-century Cloister, the Museum of the Targa Florio, the
St. Peter’s Basilica and the ancient Castle; There will be 2 tastings of food and wine products
of the territory, in particular of dairy and confectionery products; 2 experiences of visits to the artisan workshops
of the Ceramics of Collesano; 2 special experiences to discover the traditions and resources of the
territory and in particular the tourists of the roots will be able to experience a moment steeped in folklore and
popular-religious tradition linked to the celebrations of the Patron Saint of
Collesano, Maria SS. Dei Miracoli, which is celebrated in the month of May.
The activities will see the
participation of the historic Pierluigi da Palestrina band and the citizens of Collesano who live in the
city of Yverdon-les-Bains, with which our municipality is twinned, which act as a bridge with all the
other communities of emigrants abroad.
The latter will join a digitization project
of the registry of the Municipality, in order to provide the visitor of the Roots with the opportunity to carry out
genealogical research to trace its origins.
This second action will be carried out in collaboration with the network of Sicilian Museums of Emigration,
by instructing a young person in special workshops who can also collect documents attesting to the stories
(stories of communities abroad) with the aim of processing individual and collective migration issues in a timely manner
the highly sought-after family trees but also to strengthen the consistency of existing museums and/or
create and manage small museums capable of representing the migration phenomenon.
It will be the same
Network of Sicilian Museums of Emigration to provide an IT platform that
will allow municipalities – currently in great difficulty due to the lack of digitization of archives – to
meet the demand for family trees from visitors in real time.
A project that has a double aspect: a great frame event that acts as an attractor and enhances the
territorial specificities of small municipalities, strengthening the link between Italy and Italian communities
abroad, allowing Italian-descendants around the world to reconstruct their family history and
deepen the knowledge of one’s own culture of origin.
The other, of structural design, which goes beyond the event and realizes a proposal all year round
integrated tourism that is a social glue and a lever for employment development for communities by attracting
a traveler of the roots to whom qualified services can be offered.
The project marries and combines its actions with the actions carried out by the Tourism Association of the
Radici-Sicilia which will support with its communication plan the communication plan promoted by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specifically with the activity of two professionals in the United States and France who
will deal with social communication and with some territorial animation interventions that will go
to implement the action of our Municipality.
The Villages of Treasures Roots Festival project is therefore part of an integrated strategy in which the actions
they can virtuously support each other, for a multiplier effect.