Polifonic 2025: A Celebration as Emotional Geography
In a time when festivals proliferate and often blur into one another, Polifonic continues to stand out as a living organism — a collective ritual shaped by nature and sound. From July 23 to 27, 2025, the Valle d’Itria once again welcomed an international audience in search of connection, momentum, and depth. It wasn’t merely about dancing: it was about inhabiting a sonic landscape that shifted with the light, the weather, the presence of others.
Once again, Puglia offered its ancestral backdrop: ancient olive trees standing as silent witnesses, the white stone of masserie acting as resonant chambers, sunsets as both threshold and setting. The venues — Le Palme Beach and especially Masseria Capece — did not merely host the experience, they responded to it, entering into dialogue with the sound.
Artistically, this year’s lineup wove together the historical legacy of club culture with its freshest and most experimental trajectories. Legends like Laurent Garnier, Honey Dijon, Kittin, Roman Flügel, Daniele Baldelli, and Marco Shuttle were joined by contemporary voices such as Chloé Caillet, Octo Octa, Gabrielle Kwarteng, O.BEE & Tomas Station, Batu, Interstellar Funk b2b Ogazón, Dar Disku, Hiver, and Shanti Celeste. Rather than following a single path, the program unfolded like a constellation — each set drawing a new possible orientation.
It’s no coincidence that the festival embraced radical hybridity: here, electronic music was permeated by soul, psychedelia, ritualistic rhythms, and sonic introspection. A telling example was the performance by Venerus, who brought to life a live set where spirituality, club culture, and nocturnal visions coexisted in rare balance.
But what truly makes Polifonic unique is not just its curatorial precision. It is the invisible care with which it creates an open space — free of forced hierarchies — where the audience becomes an active part of the rite. One gets lost and found again, listens alone or within a collective wave, welcoming silence as much as rhythm. This wasn’t a program to consume, but a time to dwell in. An experience that doesn’t impose itself, but reveals — in the light, in the dark, in the in-between.
Polifonic 2025 was, once again, a cultural and poetic gesture — one that elevated clubbing into a relational and contemplative language. Not just a party: an emotional geography to be crossed with the body and the imagination.
Having explored the diverse voices and textures of Polifonic, we now turn our attention to the musical and creative realm of Venerus, an artist whose distinctive poetic approach seamlessly fuses experimentation with emotion, narrating stories of identity and feeling through a deeply intimate sound.
In conversation with Venerus
RITAMORENA ZOTTI: Polifonic opens a dialogue between music, nature, and collective experience. What kind of energy do you feel in a context like this?
VENERUS: What struck me the most about Polifonic was finding a sense of collectivity despite the large crowd. It’s not easy to gather such a vast audience in the middle of nature and still achieve a kind of shared participation. I felt that everyone could find their own mental and physical space without needing to be directed, and that’s a sign that the “experiment” works.
RZ: Puglia has a rhythm of its own — ancestral, even. Have you managed to connect with the place? Does it influence you when you perform?
V: Puglia is a special place, truly ancestral, and that deeply influences both the people who live here and those who visit. I’ve been coming here often since 2018, and it’s a region that has gifted me some of the most beautiful memories of the past few years. The audience here immediately responded to my music and my vibe with so much enthusiasm — it made me feel truly understood. I love coming here and playing.
RZ: There’s a lot of dancing here, but also a different way of listening. When you bring your live set to a festival like this, does something shift for you?
V: Definitely. I can sense that people here are truly open-minded when it comes to music. It’s like they’re not afraid (as they shouldn’t be) to appreciate music in its full variety. Even the audience that’s into DJs and electronic sounds knows how to lose themselves while listening to anything. That’s something special — and it makes me feel understood too.
RZ: Your music crosses different worlds — electronic, soul — without ever stopping. Right now, where do you feel you belong musically?
V: I have no idea. The journey is a constant search, without a final destination. I feel like the most important thing is to keep pushing forward, carrying everything I’ve encountered along the way. I try to strip myself of any fixed idea that could hold me back and follow the flow.
RZ: Your live shows blend ritual elements, dreamlike visions, and club energy. How do spirituality and nightlife coexist in your work?
V: Precisely because of what I just said. I carry everything with me — all the things I’ve lived and encountered — and I find ways to let them exist inside me, through my own interpretation of those experiences.
RZ: At this point in your journey, what are you looking for through music: an answer, a transformation, or simply presence?
V: I’m trying to get to places I haven’t been yet. And to discover new versions of myself.
RZ: “Felini”, your track with Marco Castello, is intimate, nocturnal, almost whispered. How did this meeting come about, and what guided you in building such a delicate sonic world?
V: Felini is, in a way, the story of how we met. Marco and I have been circling around each other since we first met in 2021, and we were both gentle with our desire to create something together — no rush. And the song is us: I’m a city cat, he’s a country cat. We recorded the demo on my phone by the sea, and I kept going back to that recording — I felt like everything was already there. So we returned to his place in Ortigia, sat by the water, and played the song, with Pietro Selvini sitting behind us playing the flute and Sili (Filippo Cimatti) recording everything beautifully with just one mic.
