Agrigento Capitale Cultura 2025: the race against time to save almost a million euros

The municipal council of Agrigento is racing against time to avoid wasting the 977,500 euros allocated by the Sicilian Region. The council has urgently approved the change to the provisional management budget for 2025 , an essential step to ensure that the contribution enters the municipal coffers and allows the concrete start of the initiatives related to “Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture 2025”. Without this measure , the entire program risked remaining on paper , because the revenue and expenditure chapter was not included in the municipal accounts. It all started a long time ago. Agrigento presented its candidacy at the end of 2022, made the short list in March 2023 and, on 14 March 2024, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage proclaimed the winning city. From there, a dense correspondence between Palazzo d'Orléans and Palazzo dei Giganti follows: on 24 July 2024, the Region-Municipality Convention is signed, which establishes the spending lines for the 2024 financial year. That decree puts four million on the table under chapter 377377 and constitutes the first operational piece of the entire project. In 2025, the twin provision arrives: DDG 2835 of 10 June, published two weeks ago on the institutional portal. With it, the Regional Department of Cultural Heritage approves the new annual program of events and commits 977,500 euros to cover shows, logistics and communication until 31 December 2025. This is the figure subject to the variation now being examined by the City Council.

The regulatory sequence appears tight. After the agreement of 24 July 2024, the Municipality implements the plan with Council Resolution 122 of 9 September 2024, while the Executive Board approves the Peg 2024–26 ten days later. The administrative machine is still moving on 18 June 2025: the director of Sector I formally requests the budget variation and, five days later, clarifies to the Financial Service that it is necessary to act quickly to comply with the procurement code and, together, guarantee the realization of " countless shows " by the end of the year. The 2024 agreement establishes a precise perimeter: the Region manages the transfer of funds, the Municipality takes care of the artistic planning and execution of the events, while the Superintendency and the Park of the Valley of the Temples support with authorizations and logistics. The framework agreement of 29 July 2024 consolidates the institutional synergy, providing for a permanent technical table that monitors the physical and financial progress of each action. The inclusion of the plan in the Peg then legitimized the first liquidations, as evidenced by the regional decrees of December 2024.

The sum covers three macro-areas. The first concerns artistic productions: concerts, open-air exhibitions, digital installations and shows spread throughout the historic center and the Valley of the Temples. The second refers to communication, from social campaigns to billboards, passing through two large press events in Rome and Milan. The third item includes logistics and services: stewards, barriers, audio-video systems, extraordinary cleaning. Each euro must be spent, accounted for and certified by December 31, 2025, under penalty of the contribution being returned . The deadline is not symbolic. The agreement with the Region provides that all initiatives must be "completed" within the year, a date that also coincides with the closing of the financial accounts. Beyond that threshold, it will not be possible to accept extensions, unless specific legislative provisions are made. Hence the request to declare the resolution "immediately executable". The actual time frame, counting publication and tender times, is approximately six months.

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