Porretta Soul Festival is back: twinning with Memphis. The 2025 program and the stars coming

Bologna, July 4, 2025 – Soul rhythm returns to the Apennines with a new feature: the twinning with Memphis. And many musical stars are expected to represent the city on the Mississippi on the banks of the Reno. The thirty-seventh edition of the Porretta Soul Festival will be held from July 24 to 27 and officially celebrates the twinning of the two cities of Soul, Memphis and Porretta Terme . The strong bond between the Sister Cities, inaugurated way back in 1988, when a far-sighted Graziano Uliani decided to let African-American Sweet Soul Music take root in his Porretta Terme, was sanctioned in Memphis on February 12 of this year. The document recognizes the merits of the Italian event, which has hosted and promoted giants of soul and rhythm & blues such as Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Memphis Horns and Booker T. & the MG's, with the constant support of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Memphis Center for Southern Folklore. The certification has as signatories the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young , and the mayor of Shelby County, Lee Harris , with their Italian counterparts, Giuseppe Nanni, mayor of Alto Reno Terme, the municipality that since 2016 has incorporated Porretta Terme, and Matteo Lepore , on behalf of the Metropolitan City of Bologna.

The occasion for this 'sisterhood' was the collaboration between the Porretta Film Festival and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission , headed by cultural agitator Linn Sitler. She will be awarded the coveted 'Sweet soul music award' 2025.

The program

We start with the extraordinary preview of the Porretta Soul Festival at Rufus Thomas Park in Porretta Terme, Wednesday 9 July , with the 66 members of the Uniting Voices Chicago directed by Josephine Lee. Founded by Reverend Moore in 1956, in the midst of the civil rights struggle, the Uniting Voices Chicago, formerly known as the Chicago Children's Choir, has involved thousands of children from the most diverse social and cultural backgrounds in its sixty years of activity based on the principle that singing together is the secret to mutual understanding. For years it has been an established reality at an international level and has participated in major world events. With a repertoire that ranges from traditional gospel to the hits of Michael Jackson to Caruso by Lucio Dalla , it has performed for major institutions such as the President of the United States Barack Obama and with major international stars such as Beyoncé , Luciano Pavarotti , Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli , Enrique Iglesias , Quincy Jones , Al Green , Eddie Vedder . He has appeared on major American television shows such as NBC's Today, Oprah and the PBS series "From the Top". He is a regular with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Opera conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti. The concert, with a repertoire that ranges from soul to world music, with an extensive medley dedicated to Michael Jackson, will also feature songs such as Caruso and a moving version of the classic "Signore delle Cime". The event will be free of charge.

Thursday, July 24th at 8pm it's the turn of John Nemeth and The Blue Dreamers, while at 9:30pm on stage there will be Andrew Strong & The Dublin Soul (From The Commitments). At 11pm it closes with Al Kapeezy aka Al Kapone with The Memphis Music Hall Of Fame Band.

Friday 25th July opens with Dublin Soul special guest Captain Jack Watson and at 10pm it will be the turn of Memphis Music Hall Of Fame Band, Shunta Mosby, Dani McGhee, Candy Fox, Carlos Strong, Jonté Mayon. Special guest: Vincent Carr “Tribute To James Carr”

Saturday 26th July starts at 8pm with the Crystal Thomas Band, special guest Captain Jack Watson, while at 9:30pm appointment with Memphis Music Hall Of Fame Band, Shunta Mosby, Dani McGhee, Candy Fox, Lil Rounds, Jerome Chism “Tribute To Wilson Pickett”. It closes on Sunday 27th July with The Blackburn Brothers at 8pm and at 9:45pm with Memphis Music Hall Of Fame Band, Shunta Mosby, Dani McGhee, Candy Fox, Jerome Chism, Lil Rounds, Jonté Mayon, Carlos Strong, Vincent Carr, Captain Jack Watson

The fifteen-piece Memphis Music Hall of Fame Band, a reinstated multi-talented ensemble led by keyboardist Kurt “KC” Clayton, will feature Shunta Mosby, Dani McGhee, Candy Fox, Carlos Strong, Jonté Mayon and Lil Rounds, among others. Veteran performer Jerome Chism will perform a special Tribute To Wilson Pickett, marking the sixtieth anniversary of “The Wicked Pickett” coming to Memphis in May 1965 to record “In The Midnight Hour” with Booker T. & the MG’s and the Memphis Horns. He would return that year, just before Christmas, to craft future classics like “Don’t Fight It,” “Ninety-Nine and A Half (Won’t Do)” and “634-5789.” The special event is a repeat of the tribute performed by Chism on the occasion of Pickett's induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, which took place in 2024. This is not the only direct homage to the greats of yesterday who appeared on the stage of Porretta. The figure of the legendary James Carr, who performed in Porretta in 1992 (Pickett was instead among the stars of the 1995 season), will be honored by his youngest son Vincent Carr in a set that promises thrills and emotion. Other performers will parade during the show led by Clayton's superband: the Texan showman Captain Jack Watson, with the pirate patch over his eye, and the hip hopper Al Kapeezy aka Al Kapone, who from a cult figure of the Memphis gangsta rap scene is emerging in territory adjacent to soul thanks to "The Breakdown" by Rufus Thomas and "Scratch My Back" by Slim Harpo.

The stars coming soon

Memphis is also worthily represented by John Nemeth with his Blue Dreamers, fresh from their nomination at the Blues Music Awards as “Band of the Year”, aware of having become a cornerstone of the festival in recent years. Also returning is the inimitable Irish soul rocker Andrew Strong , already a star in the film “The Commitments”, flanked by Dublin Soul (i.e. fellow countrymen Eamon Flynn on keyboards and Conor Brady on guitar) and supported by the entire orchestra. The explosive soul sister Crystal Thomas, originally from Louisiana and with a series of recordings both with local musicians and with the Bloodest Saxophone, a jump band from Tokyo, makes her debut at Rufus Thomas Park; former trombonist for Johnnie Taylor, she won the 2020 Living Blues Award and is accompanied by a pillar of the event, the Luca Giordano Band.

Finally, another new addition will open the evening of Sunday, July 27 : the Canadian Blackburn Brothers , standard-bearers of an electrifying blues-rhythm with indissoluble family ties. A partnership, created around the brothers Duane, Brooke, Cory and Robert Blackburn, which claims the musical legacy of their father Bobby Dean Blackburn, a legend of the Toronto night scene, and a long lineage from the "freedom seekers" who escaped slavery in the 19th century to reach Ontario. Their music resonates with the metaphorical clanking of the Underground Railroad , the legendary Underground Railway. The never-reneged ties of soul music with the incessant battle for civil rights are, moreover, a heritage proudly shared by Porretta Soul, which through the notes, voices and stories of the artists exalts freedom, equality, solidarity and justice.

Gastronomy and curiosities

The Street Food Village festival will not lack gastronomic delights from various regions of Italy. The streets of the center, on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27, will be patrolled by the lively Oversoul Street Band, now an established street band of the Festival, while during the daytime hours of all four days no less than nineteen bands will liven up the free concerts in Piazza della Libertà on the Rufus Thomas Cafe Stage. “For nearly four decades, Porretta Terme has celebrated the music of Memphis. It is time to officially recognize this relationship of sister cities,” solemnly declares Paul Young , mayor of the Tennessee city from January 1, 2024. “I trust that, through the universal language of music,” he continues, with an implicit but warm invitation to participate in Porretta Soul, “we can continue to inspire and uplift both our communities and all who visit us.”

Finally, two curiosities: an engineer from CERN in Geneva will be back in Porretta with the original “bluesmobile” used in the film Blues Brothers and you will be able to visit Rufus Thomas park, via Otis Redding, a bridge dedicated to Solomon Burke, a museum dedicated to soul mMusic and fifteen murals dedicated to the greats of soul.