Next weekend, From 8th to 10th May, the fifth edition of “Pavè, cycling in Venice"Pavè is much more than a gathering gravel, much more than a collection of cycling-themed talks. It is something more complex and multifaceted and, for this very reason, more necessary.Trying to find a synthesis, Pavè is a festival that uses the bicycle as a tool to tell the contemporary world. A unique event in the Italian panorama, but not only.
Two days of meetings in the auditorium of the M9 museum in Mestre and then a day spent pedaling around the Venice lagoon, Pavè is like a widespread storytelling workshop, capable of intertwining slow travel with a critical gaze on the present . The themes that have intertwined at the festival over the years are numerous: migration, climate crisis, inequality, territorial transformation, because the stories that permeate the festival are the same ones that permeate our time.
Guiding the vision is Andrea Heinrich, the driving force behind APS Velostazione Venezia , who over the years has transformed a project born from the bicycle into a broader cultural vision. "At the beginning, in the first editions, the stories were strongly tied to the bike," he says. " Then we felt the need to go beyond. The bicycle remained, but as a point of view from which to view the world ."
Slowness as a political choice
There's something radical, today, in deciding to slow down. Pedaling means stopping, listening, truly traversing places. And then describing them means restoring meaning to that experience . Well, organizing an entire festival based on these principles is therefore even more radical. It means betting that guests and audiences want to break out of the digital bubble and engage in listening to stories that can create an alternative.
This is where the cyclo-narration format comes from, what sets Pavè apart from all other Italian events. A hybrid language, combining movement and thought, physical experience and cultural reflection . It's no coincidence that Pavè is open to all and completely free, with the idea of building the widest possible community. A place that sparks thought.
A growing festival, with new ideas
We asked Andrea Heinrich what's new for this new edition. "This year, we've introduced a new module, Pavè Accademia, which will be held on Friday . It's developed in collaboration with the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects, and Conservationists of Venice. It's a course that awards training credits and also involves the IUAV University, with a more technical focus. During that course, we'll work on various aspects, from designing cycle paths to how to navigate the landscape mindfully ."
The program runs throughout the weekend, from 9:00 a.m. Friday morning until Sunday afternoon, maintaining a compact yet dense format. It kicks off on Friday with the feature film "Le chant de la forêt," a documentary set in the Vosges woods that offers a visual and sensory journey immersed in a French forest, and features talks by authors such as Pietro Lacasella and Matteo Melchiorre.
Saturday is the main day, with meetings, stories, and artistic cross-pollination. It starts at 9:00 a.m. and runs until 8:00 p.m., and there will be many guests. To name just a few, there will be writer Marco Ballestracci , who will present his new book; Angela Pulliero , editor for Komoot and cycling guide; ethologist Renato Semenzato , who will address the topic of coexistence with wolves and bears; and hotelier Michil Costa , with a reflection on cycling tourism and overtourism. But at Pavè, alongside spoken word, there's also room for experimentation with various art forms . Documentaries and installations, including a performance by Lucio Schiavon, who will create a live painting to the music of Miles Davis , whose birth centenary marks this year.
From storytelling to Road, always reinventing worlds
The festival concludes, as is tradition, with a cycling event. Sunday's event—with two routes, 90 and 140 kilometers, including a ferry ride off the coast of Venice —has already sold out, with 500 people from all over Italy expected to pedal the dirt roads around the lagoon. But for the second year, there will also be what Pavè has called the "Infinita." 330 kilometers straddling the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions, with an open start on Saturday.
Finally, another new feature, in this case logistical, but which perfectly captures the spirit of the entire festival. The starting and finishing village of the cycling races will move from San Giuliano Park in Mestre towards Porto Marghera, bringing Pavè into a territory that is a symbol of transformation. Heinrich continues: «Marghera has all it takes to stop being perceived as a chemical cemetery and become something differentIt can be a research center, a testing ground, a laboratory for the future. And bring the half-thousand members there. gravel laughing to see with your own eyes we believe it could be a good starting point".
Because Pavè is indeed a festival, but perhaps even more so, a civic laboratory that aims to train our eyes to see something different . Something that doesn't yet exist but could exist, if only we had the ability to look in the right direction. This is why, from this perspective, for Pavè, mobility becomes culture. And the festival, once again, is a starting point—rare yet necessary—for imagining different worlds.
