The Andornese Ferragosto for over sixty years, from 1936 to 2000, was a landmark of the Biellese summer. Born as a patronal feast dedicated to San Lorenzo, in a few years it has become something more than a simple village festival. Every year, between July and August, 39 days of entertainment and entertainment filled the summer nights with music and color, but there was a period, between 1958 and 1973, which saw the event reach the pinnacle of splendor, under the guidance of the indefatigable Efrem Galliera, coachbuilder by day and organizer of shows by night. During those 15 years, Ferragosto welcomed the performances of the greatest artists of Italian song, attracting huge crowds of spectators. Of all those concerts, which took place in the splendid setting of the "La salute" park in Andorno, among the scenographies of lights and decorations of great elegance, there remains testimony in the beautiful black and white photos by Sergio Fighera, who was the official photographer of the event from '61 to '73. The Fighera archive includes about 30 thousand negatives that document all the shows that took place on August 15th in those years, not only the concerts but also the dance evenings, the fashion shows, the sports competitions, the children's parties, the elections of Miss Piemonte, singing competitions and lotteries. The idea of this exhibition and its catalog was born from this extraordinary heritage. Added to this are some precious "memorabilia": old advertising posters (starting from those of the first editions, 1936-1939, designed by Piero Bora and kept at the Museum of the Biellese Territory), contracts with artists, autographs and dedications of the stars, budgets of the event and historical relics such as the microphone given by Mina to the organizers. Some photos of Lino Cremon, from the collection of the CRB Foundation, bear witness to the children's party and the elections of misses in the mid-1950s, prior to the management of Galliera.

There were also filmed interviews with the protagonists of the Ferragosto: the photographer Sergio Fighera, former patrons, the members of the Gli Uh! who performed in 1968, and above all Efrem Galliera, now in his nineties, who keeps lucid memories of that period and nice anecdotes about the editions he organized.

The exhibition will have a special focus on the big names of the song who in those 15 years have performed, about 50 artists, from Mina to Celentano, from Lucio Dalla to PFM, from Gianni Morandi to Mia Martini, but will also include foreign artists, showgirls (the Kessler, Loretta Goggi, Raffaella Carrà), actors, stand-up comedians, illusionists, sports champions and great dance orchestras. The exhibition will take place in three rooms of the Museum of the Territory, with a total of 190 photographs of various formats, 10 didactic panels, 3 videos in a continuous cycle.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the 128-page hardcover catalog will be published and distributed, with a preface by the well-known music critic Enzo Gentile. The catalog will contain materials that are partly different from those on display, for a total of about 190 photographs, written contributions and testimonies.