It was the first edition. Fiera del Levante, from 25 to 27 November 2011. Puglia Sounds, the regional project for the development of the Apulian music system, was born the year before. Medimex, the Mediterranean Music Expo, is an opportunity to welcome, meet and promote Apulian and international musical operators in Bari.
It was born as a music fair, the only one in Italy, dedicated to every musical genre. Three days of artistic and commercial exchanges, author meetings, conferences and thematic meetings, but also speed dating, showcases and events. The goal is to bring together the protagonists of the international music industry to think about the prospects, problems and opportunities of the Italian and Mediterranean market.
One thousand three hundred operators, two hundred artists, over two hundred journalists, twenty-one guest countries and five thousand visitors in an eight thousand square meter space with one hundred and fifty stands and fifty live appointments between showcases and events, thirty conferences, meetings and speed dating, as well as hosting the fifteenth edition of MEI, the Meeting of Independent Labels: these are the numbers of the first edition.
To open the first edition, on November 24, 2011, Meraviglioso Modugno, at the Petruzzelli Theater in Bari, dedicated to Domenico Modugno and created in collaboration with the Tenco Award with Vinicio Capossela with the sorelle Marinetti, Simone Cristicchi, Cristina Donà, Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, Pino Marino, Nada & Fausto Mesolella, Roy Paci, Radiodervish, Peppe Servillo, Daniele Silvestri, Sud Sound System, Paola Turci and Peppe Voltarelli. A tribute to the most famous pieces and to the precious dialectal musical performances of Domenico Modugno’s production who brought in his songs the invention of the sea and the bitterness of the earth, in the theater where fifty years earlier Modugno celebrated the centenary of the Unification of ‘Italy with “Rinaldo in Campo”.
From reggae to popular music, from the sounds of the Balkans to experimentation, from electronics to rock: twenty-one artists, from Puglia, Italy and abroad, alternated on three stages for a journey through the sounds of the Mediterranean. Savina Yannatou, The Banditi, Bianco, Roberta Alloisio, Sonia Brex, Boom Da Bash, Fabrizio Cammarata affiancato da Second Grace, Moussu T with Lei Jovents, Rodrigo Leao flanked by Cinema Ensemble, Badiaa Bouhrizi, Djmawi Africa, Transglobal Underground and Natacha Atlas.