Kappa Futur Festival just celebrated its 10th anniversary, providing a techno utopia for thousands of attendees in a futuristic landscape to let go, express themselves, and become whoever they want to be.
Based in the heart of Turin, Italy, Kappa Futur Festival provides an experience that sets it aside from other music festivals. Featuring cutting-edge lighting – designed by local artists and creatives – the venue also includes best-in-class sound systems, as well as an intricately chosen schedule that highlights the best in techno, house, and electronic music.
Along with its immersive sound and ever-evolving line-ups yearly, Kappa Futur Festival is steeped in history. Held in the Parco Dora, a former car factory in the centre of Turin, the location is the result of the “most impressive post-industrial renovation in Europe,” Kappa Futur Festival founder, Maurizio Vitale, told Hypebeast.
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
“Parco Dora is where industrial archaeology, green areas, art, sport, and culture come together to give back to the citizens,” Vitale said. “The project is the result of an international tender launched in 2004. The winning tender was the group headed by Latz and Partner, author of the post-industrial park in the Ruhr Basin.”
Vitale asserts the location of the festival provides the perfect synergy between man, machine and music. “From this, the distinctive feature of Kappa Futur Festival has been created: the immense warehouse of the ironworks and the complex of steel mills that surround where hundreds of thousands of dancers congregate every year.”
“Music plays a central role in bringing people together at our festival.”
The event is the city’s way of giving back to the people – and their continuing industrial heritage and diligence – that made it along with the generations that still stem from them today. Turin became the first capital of unified Italy in 1861 and grew into one of the industrial powerhouses of the new state.
Migrants from across the country flocked to work in factories of car manufacturers like Fiat, with the company becoming one of the go-to creators for creating military technology for the army.
Turino was one of the quickest cities in Italy to recover in the post-war years. Having driven the country’s economic miracle through its automotive industry, the city also found a passion for creativity during this time; a passion expressed through fashion design. In 1978, Kappa was born out of this sense of innovation and industry by founder Marco Boglione, who is now the main partner for the city’s best electronic music festival.
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Launching as a leading sportswear brand, soon worn by the world’s biggest teams and brightest stars, Boglione’s imprint consistently delivered distinctive and slimline apparel for most sports on the planet. Now, Kappa continues to thrive as a fashion entity, delivering headline-catching football jerseys for the likes of AS Monaco and Venezia FC, while also solidifying its stance in the fashion world with quality solo campaigns and occasional collaborations, with the latter presenting past link-ups with the likes of Palace.
“Historically, Turino has been an industrial city, dominated by the automotive industry over the years, which of course, attracts good business and visibility,” Kappa’s Vice President, Lorenzo Boglione told Hypebeast. “However, over more recent years, other things have changed that have shined a bigger light on the place. We had the Olympic Games, and after that people began to realize that the city had much more potential. Now, Turnio supports the arts, and nothing gives more visibility to the city of Turin than Kappa Futur Festival.”
Kappa Futur Festival
Kappa Futur Festival
Hundreds of thousands of techno-crazed fans now travel to Kappa Futur Festival annually, with the event every part the city’s beating industrial heart manifesting into a newer, more modern soundtrack – dance music. “As a brand, Kappa has always associated itself with music,” Lorenzo Boglione told Hypebeast. “The connection really started following the news that one of the old founders of Kappa Futur Festival used to work for Kappa, he’s also from Turino, and he is the son of the former owner of Kappa.”
Kappa as a brand has always had a community and family feel to it; it stays true to its Italian heritage through its apparel, footwear, and accessories, while continuing to encourage individuality and synergy with the the sonics on display. People and music are at one amid a huge brutalist landscape; arguably the epitome of modern “techno” today. This process flows throughout Kappa Futur Festival, too. “Music plays a central role in bringing people together at our festival,” Maurizio Vitale said, “our festival provides a shared experience, fostering emotional connections, and encouraging dancing and movement. It nurtures a community spirit, embraces cultural diversity, and always spreads positive vibes.”
“Parco Dora is where industrial archaeology, green areas, art, sport, and culture come together to give back to the citizens.”
Now, with Kappa Futur just ticking off its tenth anniversary, Boglione is looking to pioneer the next evolution of the festival and it’s symbiosis of sonics and sociology under the roof of a former car factory in Turin. “The festival will continue to grow. We will extend the number of activations we plan to do, and we will continue to grow and invite bigger stars, musicians, and DJs.”
