Associazione Rondine: YouTopic Fest 2022

Located in the heart of the Ponte Buriano nature reserve, once a walled stronghold for shelter from the enemy, the medieval Tuscan village Rondine is now an open place, a space for the creative transformation of conflict and the development of ideas and projects.

The Milan-based agency White Lady PR adopted the Associazione Rondine Cittadella della Pace, to support the press office activities for the promotion of the festival, which took place from 17 to 19 June 2022.

For over twenty years, processes of regeneration, friendship, harmony and beauty have been underway in the Ponte Buriano nature reserve to build a model of coexistence and ‘peace made in Italy’ at the service of the global ecosystem.

YouTopic Fest was a moment of encounter and dialogue between young people from all over the world with institutions, schools, companies, journalists and academics to address conflict as an element characterising our society in all its dimensions: from the inner and interpersonal to the intercultural and inter-religious, to the extreme degeneration of armed conflict. Three days of cultural and artistic events, workshops and thematic panels to narrate the theme of ‘complexity’ and explore the ‘possible steps’ that have inspired the projects of young men and women students, leaders of tomorrow and beyond. Through an intense programme of cultural, artistic events, workshops and thematic panels, the young people, starting with the Italian and international students of Rondine, were able to dialogue with academics, entrepreneurs, managers and institutional representatives.

The themes that characterised the sixth edition of the Festival included war, the one between Ukraine and Russia, as well as armed conflicts starting from the construction of the idea of the ‘enemy’; the challenge of school and the role of education in the creative transformation of conflicts to form new local and global citizens; the social impact with the Mediterranean at the centre, through the projects carried out by the young people of ‘Mediterraneo, a frontier of peace, education and reconciliation’, but also all the young people who are trained at Rondine every year and return to their territories to carry out, actions and projects that work on the conflicts of society at all levels; and again, the enterprise at the centre of relations through the innovative training courses of Rondine Academy, to translate the Rondine Method into both personal and professional training experience within companies, schools and the Public Administration.

Press office and information dissemination activities were focused on local Tuscan newspapers and magazines dealing with topics related to nature, family, tourism, religion and peace, obtaining coverage in the main local newspapers such as La Nazione, Toscana Oggi, Arezzo Notizie and many others.