Segmento Tarantella Festival 2025

The Segmento Tarantella Festival returns in 2025 with a powerful lineup featuring Sabatum Quartet, The Rustica Project, Greek ensemble Omados, Viva cu sona, Kavisha Mazzella, and more. Tradition becomes revolution in this Calabrian-Australian cultural epic.

Every culture has its sacred rhythm. For Calabrians—and all Southern Italians—that rhythm is the tarantella: a whirlwind of strings and drums, where grief transforms into joy, and memory spins into movement. It is more than music or dance—it’s a ritual, a remedy, a rebellion. 

Once a year in Victoria, the Segmento Tarantella Festival 2025 shapes up to be more than an event—it’s a southern storm of culture, pride, and transcendent artistry. With performances across two venues—Melbourne’s beloved Calabria Club in Bulla and the sun-drenched Shepparton Showgrounds in regional Victoria—this year’s festival reaffirms its place as a cornerstone of Italian-Australian identity. But it is also something greater: a moment of cultural history. 

The crown jewel of this year’s lineup is Sabatum Quartet, making their much-anticipated Australian debut. From the heart of Calabria, this internationally acclaimed ensemble has redefined the landscape of traditional Italian music. Their sound—haunting vocals, virtuosic playing, and modern genre-blending arrangements rooted in ancient modalities—transports listeners to a place both timeless and defiantly modern. 

Their participation marks a turning point for the Tarantella Festival: from local legend to global ceremony. Following in the footsteps of past legends of the festival, Sabatum brings the voice of a new generation—one that crosses borders and genres without ever losing its roots.

It’s impossible to speak of this year’s triumph without honouring the towering figures of past festivals. Who can forget Ciccio Nucera’s electrifying 2022 performance, his hands summoning centuries of fury from the tamburello? Or Alfio Antico in 2023—a living myth, a Sicilian griot whose voice rumbled like the earth and whose drums beat with the rhythm of Mount Etna itself. 

Alfio’s performance was more than a concert—it was an initiation. When he sang, the walls of the Calabria Club felt as though they breathed. When he played, time seemed to stop, and something ancient slipped through. His artistry set a standard that still echoes today—one this year’s performers are more than ready to meet. 

Returning with renewed force is The Rustica Project, the powerful collaboration between Elvira Andreoli, Felice Paone, Tony Villella and Anthony Stalio. Their music is sonic archaeology: digging deep to uncover the pulse of forgotten villages, shepherds’ hymns, mothers’ laments, and the stomping joy of festivals long past. 

Rustica doesn’t merely perform tradition—they resurrect it, infusing it with electronic textures, unexpected harmonies, and lyrical intensity that makes the old sound shockingly new. Their work reminds us: the tarantella isn’t nostalgia, it’s transformation.

For the first time in the festival’s history, the Mediterranean opens wider with the inclusion of Omados, a Greek ensemble led by the magnetic Joseph Tsombanopoulos. Steeped in the rugged traditions of mainland Greece and the windswept spirit of the islands, their music weaves seamlessly into the tapestry of Southern Italian folk. 

Here, the borders blur—between Greek and Calabrian, tarantella and syrtos, nostos (return) and katarsis (release). With his laouto and fierce vocal delivery, Tsombanopoulos brings a brotherly fire to the festival, a reminder of the shared roots and mirrored rituals of two cultures once joined by Magna Graecia, and still bound in spirit. 

Of course, no Tarantella Festival would be complete without the heart and soul of Victoria’s own Calabrian musical community. This year, I Viva Cu Sona takes centre stage—an ensemble of local musicians who live and breathe the traditions passed down by nonni in backyard parties, church halls, and Sunday dinners. 

Their authenticity is unfiltered. Their sound is familiar—that indescribable feeling of homecoming when the first note of the organetto hits the air. These are the musicians who remind us that culture isn’t only inherited—it’s lived.

In the eye of the musical storm is the body that sets it moving. Josephine Paone, this year’s lead tarantella dancer, is nothing short of a revelation. With every twirl, stomp, and sweep of her arms, she channels centuries of women’s stories—the fury of the spider-bitten, the freedom of the wild-hearted, the grace of the resilient. 

Her dancing isn’t performance—it’s a call. An invitation to the audience to rise, to join, to remember. In her presence, the dance becomes communion. 

And as if the program weren’t luminous enough, Kavisha Mazzella returns to the festival fold with her inimitable warmth and poetic gravitas. An ARIA-winning force of nature, a balladeer of the Italian diaspora. and a tireless champion of migrant stories, Mazzella’s is both anchor and flight. She reminds us that we carry our pasts in our voices—and that when we sing together, we belong. 

From Melbourne’s multicultural heart to the open skies of Shepparton, Segmento Tarantella Festival 2025 stretches wide—but its essence remains unchanged: a celebration of roots, rhythm, and resilience. In a world obsessed with speed and novelty, this festival dares to look backward in order to leap forward. It honours tradition not by preserving it in glass, but by setting it aflame—again and again. 

Whether you are Calabrian, Greek, or simply a seeker of beauty, this is not a weekend to miss. This is where music heals. Where dance remembers. Where the South rises—not just as a place, but as a pulse. 

Come feel it.

Visit www.segmentotarantellafestival.com.au for more information.