Mercantia

Mercantia, the international festival of the “fourth type of theatre”, is the most important Italian street theatre festival and it takes place every year over five days in July in Certaldo.
 
The magnificent town, which brought the world Giovanni Boccaccio, is filled with hundreds of artists who stage numerous different performances from dance and visual arts to street band shows, parades and much more.

For five evenings, the squares and streets of the medieval town are brought to life by singer-storytellers who tell tall tales to the youngest visitors, tightrope walkers and trapeze artists who defy the forces of gravity, clown and marionette shows, acrobats who perform to jazz music, itinerant bands who dance through every corner of the town, dancers, trampoline performers and artists who “play with fire”—literally.

It is an unforgettable sight to see, delightful for both young and young at heart, and it offers the chance to travel back in time in one of the most beautiful towns in Tuscany.