Pordenonelegge 2026: 27th edition with Salman Rushdie and Sergio Mattarella

Pordenonelegge returns from 16 to 20 September with its 27th edition which will be a prelude to 2027, when the city will be the Italian Capital of Culture. The protagonist of the opening event will be the writer and essayist Salman Rushdie, while the four-day program, full of 694 Italian and international guests, will end on Sunday with the speech of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and with the Concert for Italy entrusted to the Il Volo Trio. Mattarella's speech will come out of the theater and can be followed by everyone live, because Pordenone will be transformed into an open-air theater thanks to the giant screens. The 447 total meetings will take place in 52 locations in the city and the surrounding area. Many editorial previews and various exhibition itineraries set up in Pordenone.

"Pordenonelegge 2026 confirms and renews its most authentic vocation: that of being, first of all, an inclusive space and a cultural festival", explained the President of the Pordenonelegge Foundation, which promotes the festival, Michelangelo Agrusti. This year's underlying theme will be "sharing", the key word and motto of the edition.

The Ambassador of Freedom Award conferred by the Pordenonelegge.it Foundation will be awarded to the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, to the writer Salman Rushdie and to Vera Politkovskaja, daughter of the journalist Anna Politkovskaja, expected at the festival a few days after the twentieth anniversary of her mother's assassination. The recognition aims to focus on the value of freedom and free thought in the world.

The guests

Among the voices of Pordenonelegge there will be Eshkol Nevo, Michel Houellebecq, Peter Sloterdijk, Andrew Sean Greer, Kader Abdolah, Carol Ann Duffy, Thomas Schlesser, Leïla Slimani, Nelio Biedermann, Bérénice Pichat, Assaf Gavron, Daniel Schulz. There were also many Italian guests: Stefania Auci, Andrea Vitali, Erri De Luca, Ilaria Tuti, Eraldo Affinati, Mauro Covacich, Mauro Corona, Stefania Andreoli, Francesca Giannone, Valeria Parrella, Francesco Piccolo, Matteo Bussola, Walter Siti, Daria Bignardi, Concita De Gregorio, Romana Petri, Dario Ferrari, Viola Ardone, Laura Morante, Serena Bortone, Enrico Galiano, Andrea Maggi. Space for detective stories with Alessandro Robecchi, Antonio Manzini, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Daniele Mencarelli, Piergiorgio Pulixi, Cristina Cassar Scalia, Maurizio de Giovanni, Giovanni Grasso, Marco Malvaldi and Samantha Bruzzone, Massimo Carlotto, Andrea Pennacchi, Gianni Riotta. And the great dialogues will cross Tullio Avoledo and Fabiano Massimi, Serena Cappellozza and Bruno Gambarotta, Francesco Musolino and Carlo Calabrò, Andrea Vianello and Luigi Nacci, Valeria Della Valle and Giuseppe Patota, Andrea Segrè and Davide Rondoni, Marco Balzano and Piergiorgio Nicolazzini. This year too, poetry will be celebrated in the context of the largest national "agora" on poetic making in Italy. To valorise dissident voices, a series of ad hoc meetings will be inaugurated, the "Dissensio Arena", which will see guests the Afghan director and writer Zainab Entezar, the Iranian poet and activist Bita Malakuti, the aforementioned Vera Politkovskaja who will remember her mother Anna; the Algerian writer Amal Bouchareb, the Ukrainian author Yaryna Grusha, the Kurdish writer Burhan Sönmez, the Chinese writer and reporter Liao Yiwu. Politics will be at the center of the Europa Arena, with reflections by Nora Bussigny, Michele Ainis, Giovanni Brizzi, Pier Ferdinando Casini, Claudio Cerasa, Tommaso Cerno, Massimiliano Coccia, Gianni Cuperlo, Giorgio Dell'Arti, Federico Fubini, Carlo Galli, Giuseppe Lupo, Carlo Panella, Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, Antonio Polito. A main itinerary of the festival is dedicated to the fields of history, science and philosophy: among the protagonists Massimo Recalcati, Paolo Crepet, Aldo Cazzullo, Antonio Forcellino, Giorgio Ieranò, Guido Crainz, Marcello Flores, Andrea Moro, Silvio Garattini, Guido Tonelli, Massimo Temporelli, Giovanni Covone. Maurizio Ferraris, Nello Cristianini, Vittorio Gallese and Mario Desiati, Giuseppe Antonelli, Stefano Quintarelli, Luca De Biase, Luca Taddio and Simone Regazzoni will also speak on Artificial Intelligence.

For the complete program consult pordenonelegge.it