Loppiano gears up to take an active role in celebrating this year’s #daretocare United World Week 2021, which will begin on May 1, 2021. In addition to the annual First of May event in Loppiano, concerts by Gen Verde and Gen Rosso are also scheduled, along with many of the projects and initiatives that have been put in place by the very young and the very old!
If you happened to be near Loppiano Auditorium over the past several days, you would have noticed that something was moving. It had been empty and silent for a long time, but these days the theater has been welcoming artists and technicians who are working on the 2021 edition of the First of May Loppiano event. This year it is called #daretocare, just like this year’s United World Week 2021. Everything will have to be ready for May 1st at 3:00 pm when live streaming begins. The event will air in seven languages: Italian, English, French, Croatian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic! To follow the program, go to the Loppiano May Day website: HERE.
The Gen Verde
In another part of Loppiano, at their large rehearsal room in Lionello Bonfanti business park, the artists of the Gen Verde International Performing Arts Group,
are setting up the show A Time For Change, which will be a live concert prepared for the occasion and be broadcast live on their official YouTube channel. Alessandra Pasquali, one of the Gen Verde artists, tells us: “This concert will be performed at Lionello Business Park where we have a large rehearsal room with an installation that we haven’t used in a long time, because of the pandemic. We’ll go on stage with our electronic concert, and then with choreographies and videos. In other words, we’re back on stage!”.
What can we expect? “First of all, the whole show is geared toward United World Week and the #daretocare theme. Also, since the pandemic has accentuated certain types of problems and sufferings, in our songs we will try to respond to the silent cry of all the people who are suffering all around us, suffering with illness, addiction, and so on. We will sing to the cry of the whole human family. Then there will be pieces dedicated to topics such as interreligious dialogue, political divisions, and so on. Finally, the cry of the planet. It will be the first time that we will sing live Turn Around in live concert, a song about these very issues!”
Gen Verde will also take part in the May 1st Ecumenical Prayer at 1:00 pm with the song, You did it to me. To take part in the Ecumenical Prayer, click HERE. We will also offer cameos of Gen Verde from various occasions: the First of May Loppiano, with a reading of The Silence; the Together for Europe Event with an unreleased musical video of the song Chi piange per te; Dare To Care International Convention with the music video Turn Around; and finally, May 9th show that will kick off the new Pathways, the new awareness campaign under the banner of integral ecology, promoted by the United World Project with its #daretocare slogan.
The Gen Rosso
Gen Rosso will also contribute to United World Week with its Life Concert, which will take place in live streaming from the Loppiano studios on May 8, 2021 at 9:00 pm (UTC + 2). In this special edition of the concert, Gen Rosso will offer its own testimony of caring through music and songs about how beautiful the world would be if all human beings were allowed to co-exist in peace, respect and support of one another, with a special place for those in most need.
On May 4, 2021, there will be a presentation of the Remember Freedom Project with a collection of testimonies from people who live in war-torn regions of the world. Through music and poetry, these tales will be transformed into melodies of peace and hope. To find out more, click HERE.
Moreover, Gen Rosso’s song, Higher will become the official anthem of this year’s First of May Loppiano #daretocare event, when it is sung from the stage of the auditorium in a performance that will include a group of young people!
Children, teens and young people
The children, teenagers and young people who live in Loppiano also have many surprises in store.
The children of Loppiano will have a program just for them at 4:00 pm, called Children for a United World.
The teenagers will hold the May 2nd Run4Unity, the race that hopes to unite the whole world through sport! The race will begin at Saint Benedict Hall and conclude at the Theotokos Shrine at 12:00 pm. Anyone can join the race on foot, scooter or bicycle!
The young people from the Gen Schools and the Youth Project are preparing another surprise, so don’t be surprised if you see them wandering the roads of Loppiano, spreading the message of #daretocare to every street and corner.