The Float for the 402nd Festino di Santa Rosalia

The float’s design draws inspiration from the image of Palermo as a garden city, a place where nature, history, and diverse cultures have intertwined for centuries. The legacy of the Conca d’Oro, the historic gardens, and the Arab-Norman tradition serves as the starting point for a narrative that interprets the city as a space for encounter and cultural exchange. The float celebrates this complex and layered identity, conveying a vision of Palermo in which dialogue among peoples and cultures has given rise to a unique heritage of beauty, knowledge, and coexistence.

The float’s design draws inspiration from the image of Palermo as a garden city, a place where nature, history, and diverse cultures have intertwined for centuries. The legacy of the Conca d’Oro, the historic gardens, and the Arab-Norman tradition serves as the starting point for a narrative that interprets the city as a space for encounter and cultural exchange. The float celebrates this complex and layered identity, conveying a vision of Palermo in which dialogue among peoples and cultures has given rise to a unique heritage of beauty, knowledge, and coexistence.

The Float takes the form of a grand symbolic and botanical structure—a vertical composition built from overlapping and staggered wooden volumes that evoke terraces, architectural bases, and hilly landscapes, with the aim of recreating a landscape in which architecture, nature, and set design resonate in harmony for this special night when the Palermo community comes together and finds a sense of belonging.

The Float takes the form of a grand symbolic and botanical structure—a vertical composition built from overlapping and staggered wooden volumes that evoke terraces, architectural bases, and hilly landscapes, with the aim of recreating a landscape in which architecture, nature, and set design resonate in harmony for this special night when the Palermo community comes together and finds a sense of belonging.

The structure, which stands over ten meters tall, is conceived as a mountain covered in greenery. Its upward momentum draws the eye toward the figure of the saint, created by the Palermo-based artist Filippo Sapienza, which emerges at the summit as a luminous and protective presence, transforming this vertical progression into a metaphor for rebirth, hope, and collective participation.

The project’s color palette emerges from the interplay between the natural texture of wood, the richness of the vegetation, and light. Warm wood tones – light browns, honey, ochre, earth tones, and amber hues dominate, enhancing the textural character of the volumes and decorative panels. These are complemented by vibrant accents of blue, inspired by the “Croce della Santa” created by Palermo-based artist Filippo Sapienza using wood from the boats of migrants who landed on the Sicilian coast. Blue thus becomes a powerful symbolic element, evoking the sea, the journey, hospitality, and the hope for a new life.

The project’s color palette emerges from the interplay between the natural texture of wood, the richness of the vegetation, and light. Warm wood tones – light browns, honey, ochre, earth tones, and amber hues dominate, enhancing the textural character of the volumes and decorative panels. These are complemented by vibrant accents of blue, inspired by the “Croce della Santa” created by Palermo-based artist Filippo Sapienza using wood from the boats of migrants who landed on the Sicilian coast. Blue thus becomes a powerful symbolic element, evoking the sea, the journey, hospitality, and the hope for a new life.

Against this backdrop stands the lush greenery, which comes in a multitude of shades – from Mediterranean green to silvery green, to the brighter hues of young leaves and the more intense tones of the shrubbery – all of which help evoke the historic gardens of Palermo and lend depth and visual richness to the entire composition.

The plant component is at the heart of the project. Selected in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of the University of Palermo, more than 150 plants reflect Sicily’s biodiversity, telling the story of the city’s natural, agricultural, and symbolic landscape.

The plant component is at the heart of the project. Selected in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of the University of Palermo, more than 150 plants reflect Sicily’s biodiversity, telling the story of the city’s natural, agricultural, and symbolic landscape.

An explosion of about 300 luminous butterflies unfolds around the statue of Saint Rosalia. By its very nature, the butterfly represents metamorphosis and the transition from one state to another: hence its connection to the themes of rebirth, hope, and change.

Arranged in a spiral pattern, the butterflies guide the eye from the green base to the top of the Float, amplifying its vertical tension. Their movement suggests a path of ascent leading from the earthly realm to the spiritual one.

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An explosion of about 300 luminous butterflies unfolds around the statue of Saint Rosalia. By its very nature, the butterfly represents metamorphosis and the transition from one state to another: hence its connection to the themes of rebirth, hope, and change.

Arranged in a spiral pattern, the butterflies guide the eye from the green base to the top of the Float, amplifying its vertical tension. Their movement suggests a path of ascent leading from the earthly realm to the spiritual one.

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The lighting completes the scenographic narrative through a warm, golden, and enveloping glow that highlights the figure of the saint, the wooden bas-reliefs, and the surrounding vegetation. The luminous butterflies, distributed along the spiral path of the design, amplify the structure’s vertical tension and create a suspended, poetic atmosphere, transforming the float into a luminous apparition that unites nature, devotion, and wonder.

In honor of the upcoming European Year of the Normans 2027, a significant portion of the Float’s exposed surfaces is embellished with bas-reliefs which lend depth to the wooden panels and motifs inspired by the Arab-Norman repertoire. Islamic geometries, interlaced arches, and star motifs: the decorative pattern is not intended as mere ornamentation, but as a defining element of the project.

In honor of the upcoming European Year of the Normans 2027, a significant portion of the Float’s exposed surfaces is embellished with bas-reliefs which lend depth to the wooden panels and motifs inspired by the Arab-Norman repertoire. Islamic geometries, interlaced arches, and star motifs: the decorative pattern is not intended as mere ornamentation, but as a defining element of the project.