Verona, clash between the Superintendence and Kiss: the concert at the Arena risks being skipped

The last concert of Kiss ’ career in Italy is in danger of being skipped. In fact, on Monday, July 11, the second and last Italian leg of End of the Road World Tour, the world tour that will close the decades-long career of the U.S. rock group, which began in 2019 in Canada (in July of that year the first Italian leg had been held, at the Milan Hippodrome), interrupted in 2020 due to pandemic and resumed in August 2021, and with a planned conclusion on October 7, 2022 in Sacramento, California, is scheduled to take place at the VeronaArena. In fact, Verona Superintendent Vincenzo Tinè expressed his opposition to theuse of fireworks and smoke bombs, a trademark of the group formed by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer, inside the Arena. In fact, Superintendent Vincenzo Tinè has opposed the use of pyrotechnics for safety reasons, although we learn today from L’Arena that reservations have not yet been lifted and that the decision will come only on the day of the concert. Just as fireworks are not used at the Colosseum and Pompeii, the same should apply to the Arena in Verona: this is the line of Tinè, who is not against the concert itself, only the use of fireworks. However, the group’s management has made it known that in case of a ban on the use of fires, Kiss might not play: it would in fact mean distorting the show.

A decision that has caused much discussion: Roberto De Luca, the head of Live Nation Italia (the company organizing the date), recalled that Kiss already performed on two other occasions at the Arena and both times made use of fireworks: “It seems to me that there is a storm in a glass of water, in 2008 and 2015,” he said, “Kiss used the same effects, no more and no less. I am surprised, Superintendent Tinè does not bring technical arguments. He talks about preserving the stones and certainly not about people’s safety.” To try to remedy the problem, a meeting was also held last night between Tinè and the new mayor of Verona, Damiano Tommasi, who, however, postponed all decisions until Monday. Tinè complains that he received the technical details at the last minute and thus found himself unable to act in time by imagining a shared solution.

According to the superintendent, so far they have always acted by way of derogation, and the Kiss case could be welcome to finally establish the rules of engagement for the Arena: “They welcome it if thanks to them,” said the superintendent, “we will finally arrive at a clarification by obtaining a result that raises the level of discussion, instead of having to proceed to yet another derogation.” The shows at the Arena are in fact regulated by an agreement between the municipality (which is the owner of the monument) and the Ministry of Culture (to which the Superintendency belongs), dating back to 2013: an agreement that, however, Tinè explained, has always been waived, and which should be rewritten: “we need a strong, clear and drastic line,” Tinè stressed, “not decided by the day, a sign of a lack of strategic attention.” In fact, the problem does not only concern the Kiss concert: if the hard line prevails from the new agreement between the Municipality and the Ministry, many other concerts involving the use of fireworks could be skipped, in addition to the closing ceremony of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics and the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in the same year.

Tommasi, who in recent days has also been pressed by former mayor Flavio Tosi (“Tommasi has a shot of courage and stop the ideological no’s of the Superintendence,” Tosi told L’Arena, “with the no’s Verona risks losing great music and the best international artists”), has let it be known that, while waiting for the official response from the Superintendence scheduled for Monday, one can hope for a good outcome of the affair. Kiss fans, in short, will wait to the last for a very troubled concert, which was scheduled for the summer of 2020, then was postponed to that of 2021 for Covid-related reasons, then for the same reasons postponed again to 2022. Now this new shingle, also stigmatized by Pierdaniele Friscira, national president of Sinop - National Syndicate of Pyrotechnic Operators, according to whom, “in a very difficult period for our sector, still heavily tried by the bans put in place during the Covid pandemic, this episode only damages us further.” In fact, at risk are not only the spectators (who will come from many parts of Italy with the risk of not seeing anything if the superintendence remains firm and the concert organizers as well: the concert, moreover, has gone soldout and more than ten thousand people are expected at the Arena), but also the workers, since the groups in concert that make use of fireworks always make use of local workers. Finally, the Villafranca di Verona hypothesis pops up: in fact, the town’s mayor, Roberto Luca Dall’Oca, has offered to make the Scaliger Castle available to host the concert should the Arena show be skipped. The Villafranca Castle, in fact, has the capacity to hold the Arena audience and has already given fireworks shows.

Pictured: the Kiss concert at the Arena in Verona in 2015.

Verona, clash between the Superintendence and Kiss: the concert at the Arena risks being skipped

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.