Polifonic Festival Puglia through five key performances

Returning to southern Italy’s Puglia with a programme that brought together artists of different disciplines from all over the world, this year’s highlights included Habibi Funk, Fafi Abdel Nour and Tullio De Piscopo.

Nestled right in the heel of Italy’s boot lies Puglia. Known for beautiful beaches and the unique white and stone conical structures known as ‘Trulli’, once a year it’s transformed into a haven for pleasure-seekers from all over the world.

Polifonic Festival Puglia is well established in Italy’s festival scene. Spread out over four days, the event really makes the most of the local scenery. Over the weekend, crowds moved between two locations, spending the opening and closing parties at Instagram hot-spot Cala Maka Beach Club, while enjoying the two main nights at Masseria Capece – a maze of beautiful old Italian farmhouses hosting four stages, one atmospherically placed in the midst of an abandoned quarry. 

From electronic to rock to folk, the programme lived up to its eclectic reputation – something I was assured was “very Italian” by another punter as we stood on the side of the festival’s sole reggae set, still hearing the thump of techno in the background. 

Despite the sound clash, the weekend was a harmonious one. Check out some of the highlights below.

Habibi Funk

Based in Berlin, Habibi Funk Records is a reissue record label championing eclectic sounds from throughout the Arab world. It was co-founded by Jannis Stürtz, and we were lucky enough to hear him select some of the label’s highlights in Puglia.

Starting off playing to a small crowd at the festival’s main stage, which quickly grew as he banged out tracks like Al Shaeri’s Ayonha and Abdel Kader by Rachid Taha, the vibe was celebratory as the crowd jumped around in response to Stürtz’s own dancing behind the decks.

The set reached a high point with Meli Cheftek’s Nasro, and while the crowd was partly going nuts due to the track’s resemblance to Shakira’s Whenever, Wherever, it was great to see the music getting the platform it deserves.

Egyptian Lover

Greg Broussard, or Egyptian Lover, brought a flavour of old-school salaciousness to the opening evening’s proceedings. Dressed in dark sunglasses and a backwards Kangol hat in a tiny beach-side booth, he played hip-hop and electro staples such as Dial-A-Freak and Ooo Baby Dance.

Highlights included his own rendition of Prince’s Kiss – the artist who he credits with inspiring his vocal style – and riling up the slightly bemused Italian crowd by picking up his controller and issuing a call and response out of: “8-0″, “motherfucking 8.”

He finished the set with the iconic What Is a D.J. If He Can’t Scratch?, before leaving us feeling wistful for the 80s by signing off with a croon into the microphone: “And that’s how we did it back in the day – two turn tables and a microphone and a motherfucking 808”.

Fafi Abdel Nour

Syria-born DJ Fafi Abdel Nour is well known for creating spaces of inclusion in his town of Groningen in the Netherlands. Perhaps this was why the crowd watching his set at the Sunrise Stage seemed so cohesive. People moved as one over an impressive two-hour set, mesmerised by heavy-house body music while Fafi, leg-twitching with a cigarette constantly hanging out the corner of his mouth, brought the music to an almost ecstatic rise with technical finesse.

Tullio De Piscopo

“He basically birthed Italian rock,” says someone next to me when 78-year-old Tullio De Piscopo came out on stage. Dressed in a multicoloured waistcoat, he had drumsticks permanently at the ready in case he felt the desire to play the multiple percussive instruments scattered around him, at one point reaching around his bandmate’s neck to thwack the guitar while it was being played.

The rest of the set was made up by Tullio switching between playing his classics like Stop Bajon and embarking on indulgent drum solos, which, often accompanied by an impressive dance break, were a real crowd favourite.

With an almost James Brown-like energy, Tullio engaged both the crowd and his other performers, leading rounds of clapping and encouraging break-out performances from his bandmates, as he tried, and yet ultimately failed, to share the limelight.

Sud Sound System

Pioneers of Italian ragga, Sud Sound System have been delighting fans by singing about Southern Italy’s sociopolitical climate in their Salentino dialect since the late 80s. And this performance was no exception. While definitely the most diverse crowd at the festival, it was also the most active, with fans singing along to every word. This energy was only surpassed by the group on stage, who performed classics like Casa Mia while oscillating between rapping, intense harmonica solos and excessive gyrating.