I’m writing this article during the weekend of the 18th of October, and checking the online enrollments for the festival I’m surprised to see that in the two weeks since the website has been up, more than 700 bands have asked to participate in the festival. Many from Germany, France, Italy, Canada and even more from all the other European countries and from the most improbable outreaches of the world. Can you imagine a rock band in Uganda? OK. Emergenza is ready to go. The organization will do everything to give every band the opportunity to play live. The next step will be to create something out of this mess that is really important and relevant for young musicians. In fact, the first nights of the festival are the first chance for the bands to show their talent, their technical ability and their attitude, which are indispensable to reaching the goal. Furthermore, they can have the opportunity to participate in one of the promotional initiatives that Emergenza is creating more and more frequently and frenetically. Last week, for example, I was invited to Paris to listen to six bands that have participated in the festival the last few seasons and were now playing live in a great showcase organized by Emergenza (with more than 1000 spectators) in the well known MCM café at Pigalle. In November I will be in Italy for the first four nights of the “Best of Emergenza Tour”. The 14th of November at the Hiroshima in Turin, the 15th in Florence at Cencio’s, the 16th in Milan at the Indian and the 17th at the Calamita of Parma. In the next few weeks I will be in Germany for other concerts in the same tour. Great music and great bands!!! Last Saturday, in Paris, one of the people in charge at Columbia Sony in France was attending the concert, and I’m sure that very soon we will have great news for some participating bands.... Talking about Columbia, the following Sunday I went from Paris to Brussels where Sincere (second place at the European finals last year) was putting the finishing touches on their first CD produced by Columbia Sony, thanks to the scouting work of Emergenza. It will be in the shops in February. Don’t miss it; it will be a great gust of new energy. To put it briefly, I’m traveling around because I don’t want to miss any of the concerts from last seasons’ bands. But, to leave no doubt, I’m impatiently waiting for the 2003 season to begin. Starting in January we will see and discover new realities, new faces and new ideas. Warm up your instrument and show what you can do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!