Firenze Rocks is a rock music festival that has been taking place every year since 2017 in the Cascine Park at Visarno hippodrome.
In the first edition of 2017 the artists were: Aerosmith, Eddie Vedder, System of a Down. In 2018 it was the turn of Foo Fighters, Guns N ’Roses, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osborne. In 2019, Tool, Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder and The Cure. Unfortunately, the 2020 edition was canceled due to the Covid emergency.
Hosting such a review at the Visarno Arena is great news for all Italian rockers, given that our country, due to a popular tradition historically oriented towards pop music, has never given too much space to the most cultured rock.
For this reason, an exclusive festival like this is certainly a unique event, given the standard of these events which usually try to attract the most heterogeneous audience possible.
As Tuscans, we can be proud of what is moving in our region, with an event of this magnitude that joins the famous Pistoia Blues and Lucca Summer.
Until not many years ago we were forced to look with envy at what happened in Northern Europe and to attend international level concerts it was necessary at best to get to Milan, the only Italian city that had the appeal to enter the circuit of great rock.
For the more adventurous there was England, the home of summer festivals, or Germany. Then also in Tuscany it was understood that music festivals could be a further stimulus in tourism with a new cultural offer.
There was a high demand for healthy rock n 'roll by proposing events in suggestive locations to dedicate to live shows. This was the winning formula in Pistoia and Lucca after Arezzo had led the way with the glorious Wave Festival, which unfortunately has not been held for ten years now.
As for Florence, it was decided to take advantage of the large spaces of the Hippodrome of the Visarno and to begin with the organizers wanted to be on the safe side in 2017.
In fact, the old rock lions performed, artists who have been on the crest of the 90s and two standard bearer bands of the angrier alternative scene.
The impact of Firenze Rocks on the city is very respectable. From this website of the chamber of commerce it is possible to see the official data of 2018.
In that edition, the costs were 12 million 445 thousand euro, the revenues 14 million and 450 thousand euro.
In our hospitality area, around 89 thousand spectators spent at least one night in Florence or in other places in the region.
For the next editions, it is possible to reach the Visarno Area from Opera Boutique B&B in just 9 minutes by car. Below is the detailed map.