(Uno dei partecipanti alla Sbandata 2005 racconta la sua esperienza...)


Sbandata! 2005
Yet Another Account of Skye Crashing Around with Large Groups of Strange Loud People and Understanding Very Little

from an email I sent in may 2005

The third Sbandata, an insane convergence of street bands, mostly brass bands, from italy and europe.

This year it was in Rome. It was madness. I was only there saturday and sunday, which is probably good, ’cause I don’t know if I would have survived three days. Either I would have lost my hearing or floated off into the stratosphere supported by an angelic chorus of baritone horns.
Imagine if Kusturitza was asked to throw a civic event …..

If I understand right, "sbandata" means something like "to drift" or "o swerve" as in "the drunken musicians swerved into the street, colliding with pedestrians and tangling traffic with continuous high-decibal acoustic music and general joyus mayhem". Or something like "he falls in love but lost the mind and is wandering in the street." Very apt description.

I don’t really know much about who did the organizing, I think the coordination was done by folks from the Roman band Titubanda (probably the best street band in Italy), with some financial support from the city of Rome. I think the city gave us the food and wine anyway, as well as somehow supporting/permiting the squated/ceeded ex-elementary school where we slept (those of us who did) on the floor. Everything seemed to appear magically out of delightful anarchy.

(Per leggere il seguito http://skyeome.net/wordpress/?p=26#more-26)