Firenze Rocks, a help for Eva, 8 year old fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2020 she would have entered for free with her mother, today she needs a ticket

“I want to become great, I want to become great!”. A little girl these days is prey to the same unstoppable desire to make the leap in time to leave behind all the limitations of being little, told in the cinema by Tom Hanks and Renato Pozzetto, protagonists of Big and the Italian remake When I grow up. Her name is Eva, a small woman with a strong personality and great musical passions. Above all, the one for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She was only two years old when she was enchanted by the video clip and the chorus of children’s voices that accompanied Anthony Kiedis’ singing in the chorus of Airplanes. Like an imprint on the soundtrack of her existence as a child, the Red Hot would always be there.

Eva was even more convinced of this when, now more than two years ago, mother Frida and father Fabio had managed to buy a ticket for the concert of the Californian band at the Firenze Rocks in the summer of 2020. A coupon was enough, Eva was 6 years old and it would be free entry with the mother. But then comes the pandemic and a void in live music that is only now filling up with crowded stadiums and big concerts. Two years that can change many things even in the life of a child, beyond Dad.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers show will finally be held on Saturday 18 June at the Florentine Visarno Arena. A few days ago mother Frida, thinking about the preparations for departure, is seized by a premonition and decides to check if everything has really remained the same as in 2020. It is not so. Now Eva is eight and it is no longer enough for her to enter accompanied by a parent, she must have a ticket. It is the beginning of one of the many private odyssey to which live music lovers are called since the ticket office of the great events passes through the online purchase on platforms that only take into account IDs and credit card numbers. When a grain of sand slips into that gear, the desperate absence of any human factor emerges. Eve’s case is one of those specks.

“First of all I tried to call the TicketOne call center, twice – says Frida -, they made me wait for an infinite time by unloading the credit before being able to talk to someone. So I sent an email by filling out the form on the Firenze Rocks page, but no one answered me. Then I went to write to the Visarno Arena via Instagram. They replied saying that the girl has to pay the regular ticket since she is now 8 years old. I wrote to some of the Virgin deejays Radio, partner of the event: some of them replied (including Ringo, Giulia Salvi, Massimo Cotto) giving me some advice, but not even they could really help me “.

All that remains is to try the online ticketing on the secondary ticketing platforms. Devastating experience for Frida, who sees the coupon virtually waving in front of her nose at unimaginable figures. “Now I always have only one ticket, so much confusion and my little girl who after two years of pandemic was just waiting for this concert. When she learned that our trip to the Red Hot could be skipped, she was very upset”. “We live in Esanatoglia, a small village in the province of Macerata. Eva is a very sociable and sweet girl – says Frida -. Her passions are rhythmic gymnastics, films and music. Her first concert, at the age of 2 years, it was Goran Bregovich at the Sferisterio in Macerata. We passed on to her the passion for music from an early age “.

“Eva grew up in a house where music has always been there – Fabio remembers -. As a child she touched my instruments and before meeting Red Hot she loved Iggy Pop”. And the Red Hot? “She fell in love before Airplanes – confirms the mother -. She then she moved on to The adventures of Rain Dance Maggie, Can’t Stop, Under The Bridge and so on. In her bedroom he has a picture of the band. And when she was younger, just not to listen Grandma Pina’s tagliatelleevery now and then he came up with: “Give me the speaker (bluetooth) that I have to hear Anthony!”.

Mum Frida and dad Fabio are consumed by the passage of time and by the increasingly concrete prospect of disappointing Eva. They hope that among those who have decision-making power in the concert system, there is still someone who can understand them and also take their child’s happiness to heart. So they try to set in motion the chain of friendships, which ultimately brings out the story we are telling. A story that is like a message in a bottle thrown into the sea of ​​the internet. Let someone pick it up showing that the “human factor” in the concert machine still matters.