Rome and the southern city of Taranto both geared up Thursday for the traditional May Day 'concertone', or big Labor Day concert.
In the capital, concertone conductor Camila Raznovich issued a call to "let yourselves be astonished and enchanted".
The concert now in its 25th edition taking place in front of Saint John's Basilica will be dedicated to integration and solidarity. "It will be a music festival, but we won't forget worldwide emergencies: the mass deaths in the Mediterranean an the Nepal earthquake," she added.
Artists will include Goran Bregovic, J-Ax and Noemi, Bluvertigo, Pfm, Alex Britti, Nesli, James Senese and Napoli Centrale, and Enrico Ruggeri performing with actor Francesco Pannofino.
In Taranto, at least 100,000 people are expected to attend the concert in the city's Archeological Park.
Now in its third edition, the Taranto concertone is being organized by the Committee of Citizens and Free and Thinking Workers, which was founded three years ago after the government seized the highly polluting ILVA steel plant.
Artists there will include Francesco Baccini, Officina Zoè, Iosonouncane, Andrea Rivera, Velvet, Ilaria Graziano & Francesco Forni, Brunori Sas, Diodato, Bud Spencer Blues Explosion, Subsonica, LNRipley, Roy Paci Aretuska Allstars, NoBraino, Marlene Kuntz, Caparezza, Fido Guido and Bestierare. Meanwhile in the Sicilian city of Pozzallo, CGIL trade union federation chief Susanna Camusso said Friday's holiday "will reinforce the idea of peace, solidarity and integration so that the Mediterranean will no longer be a cemetery but a bridge for those seeking refuge in Europe".
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