The literary festival “Isola delle Storie” in Gavoi is the most important in Sardinia and over the years it has acquired an international dimension

How to disprove the stereotype of Sardinia as an isolated, peripheral and distant place from important cultural routes?
The great cultural event held every year in Gavoi, right in the geometric center of Sardinia, is the best answer.
We have already written in this blog that the Nuoro area is extremely rich in terms of cultural offer
And we will soon find out how a small but active community made this festival, which risked being marginal, a central event in the Italian literary panorama.

The most important literary festival in Sardinia, one of the most important in Italy.

L’Isola delle Storie is held in Gavoi, in the center of Barbagia, on the first weekend of July.

Thanks to the presence, from the earliest years, of high-level guests who were practically the best sponsor, this initiative quickly became the most important cultural event in Sardinia, whose prestige is confirmed year after year by the presence of writers and renowned artists and an ever-growing media attention.

Thanks to an organization that has perfected and improved over the years, today Isola delle Storie has become a complete event: readings, debates, exhibitions, shows and initiatives presented in this unusual setting by famous writers as well as beginners, Sardinians, Italians or foreigners.
The themes are equally varied, and can touch on ethical or philosophical, political or social aspects or all of them together.

It is important to underline that the issues addressed are addressed not only for today’s readers but also for those of tomorrow. Isola delle Storie in fact organizes every year initiatives for the youngest, because the formation of the consciences of the readers of the future is a commitment that cannot be entrusted only to some willing teacher, if not more often to social media.

Literature and territory, a winning combination

If the main purpose of the event, of course, is literary dissemination, no less important in the economy of this festival is the desire to make “another island” known and appreciated.

Because the choice of Gavoi as “the place” of this literary event puts the reader / traveler immediately in contact with a different experience of Sardinia.

Certainly a courageous but conscious choice, in which the distance from the circuits of mass tourism and the possible problems deriving from it has been taken into account as a sort of bet, which has so far been brilliantly won.
Because, as in the best stories, the weakness has become a strength, an alleged difficulty has turned into an advantage.
Because its precise identity makes this festival unique on a national and international level, rewarded with growing success year after year.

The mobilization of an entire small country

The inhabitants of Gavoi are deeply aware of the importance of a literary event that has become, thanks also to them, a true cultural institution. In fact, the whole country gets to work organizing the festival and transforms itself into an extraordinary space for communication and exchange of ideas.
This village, placed symmetrically in the center of the island and already rich in its own from a naturalistic and historical point of view, becomes the site of an international literary festival for 3 days. Writers and intellectuals, artists and journalists, musicians and performers from all over the world contribute with their works or performances to crowd the squares and streets of the town, making this experience unique, even if you have participated in it for years.

The Island of Stories is itself a story.

It is the story of a group of writers who wanted to hold a Festival in the center of Barbagia, who wanted to show a Sardinia different from the stereotype “beaches and myrtle”, who wanted to gather national and international writers in a context other than a sector fair and transport them to a lively and concrete reality like that of a small town in Sardinia.

An experience that we highly recommend you try, not far from our hotels in Nuoro and Bari Sardo.