Strupiaus. A word that in Sardinian means crippled, wounded, imperfect, but which in everyday speech can take on another meaning: something surprising, extraordinary, capable of attracting the eye. It is within the short circuit triggered by this linguistic polysemy that the "Lucido Festival 2026" was born, thirteen days starting August 28th in which Cagliari and its metropolitan area attempt to tell their story through what is normally relegated to the margins. Not a glossy postcard city, then, but a city to be explored in its imperfections, its contradictions, its less photographed places.
The word is also a poetic declaration: if a wound can become wonder, then a suburb can transform into a stage, a bus into a theater, an everyday space into a venue for artistic performance. Thus, the free and widespread festival chooses to bring theater, music, dance, workshops, residencies, and traveling performances to places where culture normally struggles to reach.
For the first time, Lucido Festival, On the Road, Burning City, and CagliariTiAmo come together in a single experience, a project that seeks to free the city center from its privileged position, creating a multicentric event that equally spans Giorgino and Pirri, Is Mirrionis and San Michel, Elmas, and some of the most recognizable locations like the T-Hotel, as well as decidedly less conventional spaces like a bus on Line 1 of the CTM. The audience, therefore, is not simply invited to a show but to explore the city, changing their perspective along with the location.
It's an interesting reversal: for years, the suburbs have been viewed primarily as places to be redeveloped, reclaimed, and included. For thirteen days, they instead become places capable of producing culture and attracting visitors, distributing cultural and tourist flows so as to generate benefits that extend beyond the festival's duration.
From August 28th to 30th, the event will be at 8 pm at the THotel in Cagliari for a preview of the festival.
Comedian presents a preview of her show, which will debut in 2027. The show focuses on mental illness, the rise of extremism and fanaticism, and the need to find ways to maintain our sense of humor while the world seems intent on losing it.











