THE ZEN CIRCUS live@Straborgo

It is the first name to come out of the deck of Straborgo 2026, the event organized by Fondazione Lem in collaboration with Xlr Produzioni Srl which since 2021 has relaunched the neighborhood of Borgo Cappuccini consecrating it as a designated place for high-impact concerts, all strictly free. The band will be on stage at Straborgo on May 29th (free entry) for the “Il Male Summer Tour 2026”.

The Zen Circus tour takes its name from IL MALE (Carosello Records), the new album of unreleased songs by the rock band from Pisa released on September 26, 2025, and whose presentation, concluded in December, was sold out: a result that testifies to the enthusiasm of the public for an album that debuted at the second place on the FIMI/GfK chart of the best-selling physical albums in Italy and at the fourth place in the general chart.

Eleven tracks for one of their most raw and direct works in which the theme of pain is addressed in its multiple forms. The band puts Evil at the center: it questions it, listens to it, fights it. Because ignoring it does not erase it, but fuels it. It defends imperfection and inconsistency as part of being human, recognizing in fragility and fallibility a common trait.

The Zen Circus maintain intact that heterogeneity that has always defined their sound and artistic direction: a disruptive energy, lyrics that are quickly catchy, an alternation of cutting songs and intense ballads. IL MALE was presented with numerous interviews and received enthusiastic reviews from the main media outlets.

The band has built a path of continuous growth, becoming a reference point for Italian rock with a transgenerational audience that has been following them for over twenty-five years, thousands of concerts, thirteen albums behind them, the participation among the big names at the 2019 Sanremo Festival, and an anti-biographical novel published by Mondadori, which has conquered readers and the rankings drawn up by the major national newspapers.

The announcement of the summer dates follows that of the European tour dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the release of “La Terza guerra Mondiale” which will see The Zen Circus engaged throughout the month of April in some of the most important European cities: from Munich to Berlin, from Paris to Brussels, from London to Barcelona.

Straborgo is the event that has attracted national attention as a “designated place” for important concerts. Over time, it has also become a popular location for the start of many young artists’ careers. The beating heart of the party remains Piazza Mazzini, the large quadrangle flanked by centuries-old plane trees that will host, from May 29th to June 1st, 2026, three concerts and an evening of fun.

The Sunday afternoon of May 31st will, as always, be dedicated to the sporting gesture of the rowers of the Coppa Risi’atori, one of the classics of Livorno rowing, which Fondazione Lem has revitalized with live TV broadcasts and big screens in Piazza Mazzini using drones that follow the competition in open sea.