The Festival della Canzone Italiana — better known as the Sanremo Music Festival — is the most important popular music event in Italy, held annually in February at the Teatro Ariston. Broadcast live on RAI 1 for five evenings, it consistently draws the largest television audiences of the year, outrating everything except the World Cup final.
The festival began in 1951 as a small event held in the casino. It grew through the television era into a cultural institution, simultaneously revered and mocked — Italians grumble about its conservatism while watching every night. Visiting Sanremo during festival week (usually the first or second week of February) is an experience worth considering: the town fills with journalists, fans, and industry figures, every hotel is full months in advance, and the streets around the Ariston become a continuous outdoor party. Tickets for the televised shows are expensive and allocated through a complex lottery, but free daytime events and secondary concerts are accessible to anyone who turns up.