Rick Rubin curated a “secret” music festival in Tuscany, Italy this past weekend, which featured performances from James Blake, Gossip and more.
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The under-the-radar festival – named Festival of the Sun – kicked off on June 21 and ran until June 22. The festival was an intimate and exclusive affair, with only 150 invitations sent out.
Majority of the festival took place at the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta church, where most of its performances were held. However, Variety reports that “access to the town’s main stage was open to the public free of charge”.
Among the performers were James Blake, Beth Ditto and Gossip, Arcade Fire‘s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, Rhye and Italian rapper Jovanotti.
A special screening of Andrew Dominik’s 2022 Nick Cave documentary This Much I Know to Be True was also held during the festival. Special guests at the festival included Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey – who hosted a talk titled Tech and Freedom – along with Måneskin‘s Thomas Raggi and Ethan Torchio; Italian rapper Ghali; and Italian actors Riccardo Scamarcio and Benedetta Porcaroli.
Festival of the Sun was described via a poster as “a celebration of the summer solstice”.
It is currently unclear if Rick Rubin has planned another edition for 2025, or if he hopes to expand the festival in the future. Earlier this year, Perry Farrell revealed that Rubin wanted to buy Lollapalooza following the cancelled 2004 revival: “I was hurting for money. I don’t know why, but Rick Rubin decided to make an offer to me to buy the name for like a million dollars. I won’t tell you exactly how I put it, but I said no.”
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