01 — Festival
Palermo becomes a festival
Manufacto is a citywide festival that runs through Palermo and stages its culture of making.
AI-generated image A circuit of major cultural venues hosts exhibitions, installations, talks and special projects devoted to design, fine craftsmanship, materials, companies and new productive cultures.
Around it, a second circuit of studios, workshops and ateliers opens its doors, letting visitors into the places where things are conceived, drawn and built.
For a few days the city becomes a map to explore: palaces, museums, gardens, churches, workshops.
Palermo does not host Manufacto. Palermo is Manufacto.
One festival, two circuits
Not a trade-fair enclosure. A city to walk through.
01
Manufacto / Locations
The GAM, the Spasimo monumental complex, the Orto Botanico, the Port and other places in the city become the stage for exhibitions, installations, performances, talks and special projects.
Maps →02
Manufacto Diffuso
Studios, ateliers, workshops and makers open their doors at the same time. Visitors move from museum to workshop, from garden to studio, from an installation to the place where an object is actually made.
Manufacto Diffuso →The programme
Seven strands, one festival
- 01 Mostre istituzionali Making enters the places of culture GAM, Spasimo and other cultural venues 4–7 November 2027
- 02 Manufacto Diffuso Entering the places where things are made Studios, ateliers, workshops across the city 4–7 November 2027
- 03 Panormos Everything passes. Everything arrives. Port of Palermo In development
- 04 Manufacto Selection A selection of design-oriented making Open call for ateliers, workshops and makers 4–7 November 2027
- 05 Manufacto Academy From training to production Summer school with universities, academies and companies In development
- 06 La processione e il dono Every edition leaves something to the city A public space in Palermo In development
- 07 Manufacto incontra l’industria Leading design companies in dialogue with makers Showrooms and partner venues In development
- + Manufacto Mediterraneo Palermo, a meeting point of the Mediterranean Academies, universities and research centres across the Mediterranean Cross-cutting
Here, design has a history
Liberty, Basile, Ducrot and the applied arts
Palermo was one of the great Mediterranean capitals of art, architecture and the applied arts. A city built in layers, where different worlds left forms, techniques, materials, gardens, buildings and decorations.
Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this history meets modernity. Liberty, Ernesto Basile, Vittorio Ducrot and the applied arts make Palermo one of the most original laboratories of Italian design culture. The Ducrot workshops brought together architecture, art, industry, craft and production.
Manufacto picks up that thread and brings it into the present.
A land that knows how to make
The past not as a souvenir. As raw material for the future.
In Sicily, materials almost always carry a geography and a history with them. Manufacto is not here to celebrate know-how with nostalgia. It is here to look for what comes next: who are the craftspeople, designers, artists and entrepreneurs transforming this heritage?
- 01 Ceramics
- 02 Stone and marble
- 03 Metal
- 04 Wood
- 05 Glass
- 06 Textile
- 07 Graphics and publishing
- 08 Food and wine
Material images generated with AI
Before, during, after
Making Manufacto a fixture, not an episode
An editorial and digital platform accompanies Manufacto all year round: the Atlas of makers, the Maps of routes and the Magazine, together with videos, interviews, press office and media partnerships, progressively build the festival’s audience.
Manufacto builds a common space where those who design meet those who make, those who make meet those who tell, and those who tell meet those who choose. This cross-pollination turns an event into a cultural platform.
- Design and architecture
- Contemporary art
- Fine craftsmanship
- Fashion
- Food & wine
- Companies and professionals
- Students and new generations
- Cultural tourism
- Media
- Opinion leaders
- Institutions