Following the success of the first two events, the Santa Giusta Sound 2026 music festival returns tomorrow, Thursday, September 17, with one of the most anticipated evenings of the program. At 9:00 pm, Corte Figus will feature Barrittas, a band that holds a prominent place in the history of Sardinian music and that took its first steps in the early 1960s between Oristano and Santa Giusta. The new festival, promoted by the Municipality of Santa Giusta and organized by the Association of Local Authorities for Cultural and Entertainment Activities, has already demonstrated, in its first weeks, its ability to draw audiences to a project that intertwines music, memory, and the local identity. The debut with The Master Trio brought the atmosphere and influences of jazz to Corte Figus, while the second event, "La Notte dei Salis," brought the extraordinary artistic experience of brothers Antonio and Francesco Salis back to the forefront of the story.

Two evenings distinct in terms of musical styles and repertoires, united by excellent audience participation and the desire to rediscover some of the most significant moments in Sardinian musical history. Now the journey continues with the Barrittas and a return to the origins of beat music on the island. Formed in the early 1960s in the Oristano area, the Barrittas were among the Sardinian groups that early on captured the beat and rock revolution, which was radically changing Italian and European popular music at the time. With Benito Urgu, Antonio and Francesco Salis, and the various musicians who have been part of the group over the years, the group brought a repertoire that blended international hits, original compositions, rock, beat music, and irony to clubs, squares, and later beyond Sardinia. A story that didn't remain confined to the island. During the 1960s, the Barrittas succeeded in establishing themselves on the national music scene, even participating in one of the most unique experiments of that era: the Beat Masses, in which the new languages of youth music were incorporated into the liturgy. The September 17th concert therefore represents much more than a new musical event.

This is one of the central themes of the Santa Giusta Sound cultural project, born with the aim of bringing to light a period of particular artistic ferment and presenting it to contemporary audiences. Indeed, there's a thread that directly connects the Barrittas to the musical history of Santa Giusta. It begins with the beat of the 1960s, passes through the artistic research of Antonio and Francesco Salis, encounters progressive music and the influences of the following decades, and reaches the experiences that continue to reinterpret Sardinian musical culture today. "This event represents a cultural project born from the municipal administration's desire to highlight a significant part of our community's history and identity," emphasizes Santa Giusta Mayor Antonello Figus . "Over the decades, Santa Giusta has produced highly significant artistic and musical experiences, capable of significantly contributing to the growth of the Sardinian cultural scene."

The response from the first two evenings also confirms the interest in a project that aims to go beyond a simple succession of concerts, transforming music into a tool through which to reconstruct a collective memory and connect it to the present.

"Santa Giusta Sound was born from the desire to reclaim that memory, revive it for those who knew it, and above all, share it with the new generations," explains artistic director Nicola Urru, who built the program around the artistic experiences that, from the 1960s onward, linked Santa Giusta and the Oristano area to the island's music scene. The Barrittas concert thus takes on a special significance within the festival: it symbolically takes Santa Giusta Sound back to the origins of that history, when beat music was transforming the way music was made and young Sardinian artists were beginning to engage with the great innovations coming from the rest of Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, reinterpreting them through their own sensibilities. After the Barrittas concert, Santa Giusta Sound 2026 will continue with two more events, both at 9 pm at Corte Figus. On Thursday, September 24th, Antonio Lotta will perform "Le radici dei Janas." A composer and multi-instrumentalist, Lotta has spanned several eras of Sardinian music, from his experience with the Salis to the founding, in 1992, of the Janas project, in which singing, polyphony, traditional instruments, and contemporary languages meet legends and tales of the island's popular culture. The series will conclude on Thursday, October 1st with "Racconti e canzoni," a performance by artistic director Nicola Urru that will span nearly fifty years of music, theater, and experimentation: from his early days in the Oristano area and his collaborations with Benito Urgu and the Salis, to his long professional experience at Milan's Teatro alla Scala and his most recent projects related to Sardinia.

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