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31 artists
An Italian DJ and producer duo who went viral in 2024 with a format that rebuilds the greatest hits of Italian music as Afro house — remixes of songs like "La Rondine" and "Maledetta Primavera" that have drawn more than fifty million views worldwide.
The attention brought the original artists and the major labels to them: they signed with Universal Music in
Guitar
Melbourne guitarist working in jazz manouche, playing in the style of 1930s players such as Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang — often solo, on a 1946 Gibson ES-300. He has been part of Melbourne's gypsy jazz and traditional jazz scenes for over a decade, performing with Catfish, Skiffle Party and Dai Ciccio, and released the album Tiny Moments in 2024.
Chef & director, Chef Akela
Chef Akela Nevelli is a Melbourne-based chef and director with more than ten years in high-end hospitality across Italy, the United Kingdom and Australia. His style is rooted in modern Italian cuisine, combining traditional techniques and flavours with contemporary presentation and locally sourced ingredients.
As the founder of Chef Akela, he specialises in
Pastry chef & chocolate maker
Alessandro Luppolo is an Italian pastry chef and chocolate maker based in Melbourne. Trained in New York City, he became head pastry chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong, then cooked at Attica in Melbourne before opening his bean-to-bar shop in Elsternwick.
There he produces small-batch chocolate and seasonal bonbons. He is the only Italian in
Italian-born, Melbourne-based singer who performs across Italian, English and Spanish repertoire — solo, at weddings, and as a vocalist with Italoritmo, Mi Fiesta, Carlito's Way Timba and Calle Luna.
She fronted the Italian Salsa set with Italoritmo on the Festa main stage in 2025.
Chef & co-founder, Al Dente Enoteca
Andrea Vignali is a Milan-born chef and co-founder of Al Dente Enoteca in Carlton. His cooking is rooted in Italian tradition but driven by a modern, playful approach, and he built his career around pasta, hospitality and the belief that Italian food can evolve without losing its identity.
At Al Dente he combines classic techniques with Australian
Trumpet player, composer and teacher based in Melbourne/Naarm. Her work explores collective improvisation, sound manipulation and layered texture, drawing on Arve Henriksen, Andrea Keller, Bill Frisell and Bon Iver. A Monash University graduate, she leads the band Ashes, whose self-titled album was released in 2024, and has performed with Stephen Magnusson,
The regional choir of the Casa D'Abruzzo Club in Epping, keeping the song tradition of Italy's Abruzzo region alive in Melbourne.
The club itself was formed in 1975 when the Francesco Paolo Michetti Club, the Abruzzo e Molise Club and the Sulmona Marane Social Club amalgamated, joined a year later by the Peninsula Social Club; its Aquila Hall clubhouse and
Mark Pellegrini has been a fixture of the Melbourne dancefloor for four decades. His grandfather and father migrated from Abruzzo in the early 1950s, and the Italian music, food and traditions he grew up with have run through his whole career.
He started DJing as a teenager in 1986 on a suitcase turntable and a cassette deck, working house parties and clubs
Melbourne DJ Stefano Marcianò plays Italo disco and Italian club sets, and is a regular across the Festa's stages.
In 2025 he worked the Italo Disco DJ stage on the Saturday afternoon and came back to close the main stage that night.
Melbourne trumpet and flugelhorn player known for a warm, lyrical tone and an unhurried, melodic approach to improvising. He performs as both soloist and bandleader across jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals in Australia and overseas, has recorded several albums, and studied with Bobby Shew. His playing is rooted in the jazz tradition and shaped by his
Singer-songwriter & Musical Director
Gisella Cozzo is an Italian-Australian singer, songwriter and producer whose career bridges two countries. Born in Melbourne, she started studying singing and acting at nine and won Young Talent Time — Australia's longest-running talent show — at sixteen, going on to open in Australia for Eros Ramazzotti, Pupo, Marcella Bella and Toto Cutugno.
She made her
Chef & restaurateur
Guy Grossi is a Melbourne-born chef and restaurateur and one of the best-known names in Italian cooking in Australia. The son of a Milanese chef who arrived in Melbourne in 1960, he trained at Box Hill Institute and cooked in his father's kitchens before opening restaurants of his own.
For more than twenty-five years he led Grossi Florentino on Bourke Street,
Melbourne Zumba instructor Linda Nogara brings the Italian-flavoured dance-fitness session to the Festa — a high-energy main-stage class that gets the whole crowd moving.
A licensed member of the Zumba Instructor Network and a Piloxing instructor, she teaches Zumba Gold at the Phoenix Park Community Centre in East Malvern and runs Zumbini classes for babies
Italian swing & folk band
A Melbourne five-piece playing original Italian music alongside a mixed pot of swing, rock, country and jazz, with gravelled Italian vocals over acoustic guitar, trombone, accordion, double bass and percussion.
Their repertoire leans on the great Italian songwriters — Paolo Conte, Fabrizio De André and Gino Paoli — and the band scales down to solo, duo or
Milan-born, Sydney-based chef Luca Ciano's life and career are rooted in family, tradition and fresh ingredients. He is known for his TV show Luca's Key Ingredient, streaming on SBS On Demand, his bestselling cookbooks and his own range of artisanal products.
His philosophy is simple and uncompromising: food must always be fresh, simple and strictly seasonal,
Gelato maker, Naturalis Gelato Italiano
Maurizio Manzi is an ambassador of Italian gelato in Australia, with fifteen years mastering the craft in Italy before bringing it to Victoria. He founded Naturalis Gelato Italiano, the first catering business dedicated entirely to gourmet gelato, serving weddings, birthdays, corporate events and brand activations.
He has collaborated with international
Nicola Romano is a chef from Brescia, in Lombardy, who brings the pasta of his hometown to the Festa stage.
Melbourne singer, entertainer and club DJ of Italian background, with around thirty years of performing behind him. He fronts a live band delivering Italian hits at full voltage, then switches to the decks for Italian remixes.
He is the creator of Pauly J's Primavera, billed as Melbourne's biggest end-of-year Italian dance party, and returned to the Festa
Melbourne pianist, composer, producer and musical director. Born in Adelaide, he studied at Box Hill College of Music, in Naples with classical pianist Antonio Maione, and at Melbourne University with Tony Gould. He has performed and recorded with Hugh Jackman, Richard Marx, Olivia Newton-John, John Farnham and Guy Sebastian, and co-wrote "We'll Be One" for
Soprano
Rebecca Gulinello is an Italian-Australian soprano from Melbourne, and a dual citizen of both countries.
She took a Bachelor of Music Performance with Honours at the Melbourne Conservatorium, held the Amelia Joscelyne Scholarship with the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust, and studied in Italy in 2014 on scholarship from the Acclaim Awards and the Rotary Clubs of
Multilingual Italian & Latin band
Rob Severini settled in Australia in the late 1970s and began his career as a bassist and singer working Melbourne's club circuit. He was awarded the first diploma in double bass (A.Mus.A) issued in Victoria by the Victorian College of the Arts.
Multilingual, he sings in Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and English, leading the Life Band through Italian,
Cake decorator, Brunetti Classico
Robert Tricklebank has spent a number of years in the cake decorating team at Brunetti Classico, the pasticceria on Lygon Street, Carlton.
Drums / composer
Sicilian-born drummer and composer based in Melbourne. He leads the Triveni Quartet, whose original music traces the influence of Sicilian musicians — from Nick La Rocca and Louis Prima to Chick Corea — on the development of jazz, alongside his own writing on migration and cultural identity.
Formed in 2013, Santa Taranta play the music of southern Italy — pizzica, tarantella, polkas, serenades and stornelli — alongside original writing that pulls in Celtic, Spanish and Argentinian folk threads.
The band was founded by Salvatore Rossano, an Italian musician and ethnomusicologist whose fieldwork has taken him across Europe, South America and
Siesta Cartel describe themselves as a unifying musical movement led by a group of young Italians from Melbourne, formed to celebrate traditional Italian music and reconnect the Italian-Australian community with its heritage.
Their debut album "Canzoni Di Mio Padre" — Songs of My Father — collects eleven traditional Italian tracks as a community tribute to
A Melbourne duo playing traditional Italian music for festivals, corporate events and private functions.
At the Festa they work both ways — a full concert set on the main stage and roving acoustic sets through the crowd.
Electric / acoustic guitar
Melbourne guitarist and composer. He leads the Steve Rando Quintet, whose music reimagines the cinematic Italian sound of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota alongside his own original compositions, with a focus on lyrical melody and expressive improvisation.
Established in 2018 and based at the Veneto Club in Bulleen, the Veneto Club Choir is a volunteer ensemble singing traditional Italian repertoire, directed by Pasquale Marinelli with maestro Giuliano Di Ienno.
The choir rehearses fortnightly and performs at club functions, weddings, parties, church masses, nursing homes, festivals and community events across
