The eighth edition of the Sustainable Development Festival returns from May 7 to 23 2024 throughout Italy, online and abroad. The Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), which brings together more than 320 organizations from the economic and social world, organizes the Festival together with its Members and with the support of Partners and Tutors, over a span of 17 days, as many as the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN 2030 Agenda. With the involvement of hundreds of organizations throughout Italy, the network of Italian embassies and cultural institutes abroad, the active role played by universities and the collaboration of territories, the event reaches every years every millions of people, confirming itself as a unique experience on the international scene.

Hundreds of events organized by civil society will enliven the billboard with conferences, workshops, book presentations, performances and more, as well as new paths of contamination of different worlds, from culture to technology, from information to education. All these initiatives will deal with issues related to the 2030 Agenda Goals, with the aim of making them close and interesting for the general public.

Furthermore, ASviS will hold the main events of the Festival in different cities throughout Italy, specifically:

• May 7, the Festival will open in Ivrea, to pursue a reflection on the role the private sector has to play in facilitating the transition to sustainability, to illustrate the main obstacles and identify concrete solutions for integration. The ASviS Spring Report will be presented.
• May 9-10-11, the next stage, in Turin, will take place as part of the Salone del Libro to reflect on the contribution of culture in the sustainability debate. 
• May 14-15, the third stage will be in Bologna to explore issues of ecological transition, with a focus on the role of cities.
• May 17, an event dedicated to the role of territories in implementing the national sustainable development strategy will take place in Milan.
• May 21, the fifth stage will take place in Palermo, which will host a focus on social issues.
• May 23, as usual the institutional closing will take place in Rome.
• In Rome, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni will be the "home" of the Festival, hosting numerous events dedicated to the individual Sustainable Development Goals.

Online trainings, artistic illuminations of monuments, concerts, document presentations and more are also planned, with the aim of spreading the messages of Agenda 2030 also through contaminations with the languages of art, culture and multimedia.

This edition of the Festival will be the first after the mid-term "turning point" for the 2030 Agenda. For the whole world, and for Italy, it will therefore be necessary to accelerate efforts to make the transition to sustainability. This urgency, strongly reiterated at the 2023 SDG Summit by Heads of State and Government from around the world, is also necessary to respond to the many crises that have occurred in recent years, including but not limited to the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.

In this regard, the Summit on the Future promoted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres that will take place in September 2024, will be a crucial event to which all countries, the European Union and civil society must arrive prepared, with concrete proposals and ideas on which to develop policies in the coming years. In addition, June 2024 will see elections for the European Parliament, which will determine how the Union will pursue the ambitious sustainable policies initiated over the past five years, as well as local elections in many Italian municipalities.

The theme of urgency also applies to Italy, which will have to give substance to the constitutional reform of Articles 9 and 41 on the one hand, with the inclusion of the protection of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems among constitutional rights, with a view to intergenerational justice, and continue to implement the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), also consistent with the National Sustainable Development Strategy updated in 2023. Italy will hold the presidency of the G7 in 2024 and will therefore have to assume the leadership role of the world's most industrialized group of countries, directing their action and commitments.

Watch the example of the mobilization of the 2021 edition!