{:en}It will be preceded by three days of events and demonstrations the traditional procession of Our Lady of the Visitation on July 2 organized by the Confraternity of the Blue Hats under the patronage of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the City of Loano.
Thursday, June 28 at 10 p.m. at the Oratory of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary concert featuring Elisabetta Vosilla (solo voice), Paola Arecco (piano) and Gianni Gollo (transverse flute).
On Saturday, June 30 at 9:30 p.m., the cloisters of the former St. Augustine convent will host a concert by the Santa Maria Immacolata Music Association. The Loano band corps, conducted by Maestro Davide Nari, will range from original band pieces, light music, transcriptions of classics and will perform music by P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. Rossini, J. Texidor, M. Jackson, L. Bernstein, E. Elgar, M. Sweeney.
On Sunday, July 1, however, there will be a performance by the Flag-wavers of Fossano. The historic group of about 60 flag-wavers and musicians will bring the ancient art of flag-waving to the squares and streets. The most spectacular performance will take place in Piazza Italia, at 9 p.m., after the procession, which started from Piazza Mazzini, has traveled along Corso Roma, Piazza Rocca and Via Doria. The group will perform with choreography and intervals of movements punctuated by the rhythm of the group of musicians, consisting of drummers and clarion players, who will accompany each part of the various exercises emphasizing the various phases.
The two evenings of music and the show of the Fossano Flag-wavers are part of “Waiting for July 2,” the initiatives organized under the patronage of the city's tourism, culture and sports department to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Visitation.
Finally, on Monday, July 2, the traditional procession of Our Lady of the Visitation will be held, with the participation of confraternities from all over Liguria. For more than four hundred years, the Cappe Turchine have been reviving this religious feast, which is deeply felt by the people of Loano. The origins of the feast date back to 1637: on the night between July 1 and 2, ships of Barbary pirates appeared on the horizon of Loano ready to put the town to fire and sword. The inhabitants, realizing the impending danger, commended themselves to Our Lady of the Visitation and went out in procession with torches, candles, banners and crucifixes. In the night darkness that movement of lights and banners frightened the pirates, who mistakenly believed they were facing a defensive garrison, so they gave up the attack.
The feast is also called the “Feast of the Sea” because on this occasion the sculptural group depicting Our Lady of the Visitation, carried on the shoulders of the Cappe Turchine confraternity, makes a stop to offer a special tribute to the sea. In the procession, Ligurian confraternities will parade with their crucifixes, marked by sumptuous decorations, and the statuary group depicting the Virgin with St. Elizabeth, St. Joseph and St. Zachariah, covered with the golds donated for grace received or invoked, will also be carried on their shoulders. Candles on the window sills of homes will welcome the procession through the historic center.
The brotherhoods will move from Piazza Italia and through Via Doria to the waterfront. A first stop will be made at the height of the “Little House of the Sea Workers,” where the bearers will make the first “brassa!”, “issa!”, “brassa!”, repeated three times, to raise high and lower the “chest” for the “greeting.” The second and longer stop will be in Mazzini Square for the “blessing” to the sea. Suggestive more than anything else is the moment when dozens of bearers, with arms outstretched in the effort, raise the statuary group above their heads and lower it three times, in the “salute or blessing to the sea,” which is a tribute to those who have lost their lives in the hard work of the sea. After the blessing, the procession will resume its journey through the streets of the old town to return to Piazza Italia.{:}
