Eric il Cane
Hi-Fructose correspondent Lauren Quinn just had a pretty amazing weekend in Grottaglie, Italy at the opening of this year’s Fame Festival. The DIY street art/print festival officially opened on Saturday, the culmination of months of residencies from international artists. Prints, ceramics and original works from Studio Cromie were on sale, and final maps of this year’s street art pieces were released.
Gallery (housed in ancient ceramics studio) on preview night
Artists, collectors, bloggers and enthusiasts ventured from all over Europe and North America to the small Italian town, where organizer/curator/financer/one-man-party Angelo Milano welcomed us with open arms (literally). We gathered at Studio Cromie’s gallery space in the town’s ancient ceramics district on Friday for the preview, where works from participating artists were on display. We then marched through the old town to Angelo’s grandmother’s house, where his parents hosted a homecooked traditional Italian dinner.
Slinkachu
Saturday, we all wandered around town with our maps, clicking photos and ticking off the 60+ list of street art pieces around the city. A highlight was venturing just outside town to an abandoned monastery, where works from all three years of the festival could be found amid the crumbling stories of hallways and rooms.
Crowd on opening night
Saturday night was the official opening, hosted again at Studio Cromie’s gallery space. DJs Congorock and Populous played sets to the diverse crowd of art fans and locals that overflowed into the courtyard, clutching plastic cups of Puglian wine. We then marched through town again, this time to Studio Cromie’s studio outside of town. DJs played, and Angelo busted out about 8 bags of glitter onto the makeshift dancefloor, where people partied until near-dawn. Sunday, we all wandered around, dazed and glitter-covered and pretty damn happy we’d made the mission to Grottaglie.
JR
Special on-site report by Lauren Quinn, stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Fame Festival founder Angelo Milano tomorrow, here on Hi-Fructose