Mercantia

Mercantia is much more than a festival: it is an immersive experience that transforms the medieval village of Certaldo into a large open-air stage every summer. Known as the International Festival of the Fourth Theatre, Mercantia is the most important Italian festival dedicated to street theatre and takes place every year for five days in July, attracting artists and spectators from all over the world.

For five consecutive evenings, the squares, streets, gardens and hidden corners of the village – including crypts and historic spaces – come alive with performances ranging from dance, music, visual arts, juggling, acrobatics, contemporary circus and art installations. The audience moves freely between performances, experiencing the village as a labyrinth of surprises and wonder.

Storytellers enchant children with fairy tales and novellas, tightrope walkers and trapeze artists defy gravity, clowns, puppets, acrobats and travelling street bands get every corner of the historic centre dancing, stilt walkers, dancers and fire artists: Mercantia is a continuous explosion of creativity and imagination, capable of fascinating adults and children alike.

The festival was founded in 1988 under the artistic direction of Alessandro Gigli. Only 10 theatre companies participated in the first edition, but it was immediately clear that this was the beginning of something special. In over thirty years of history, Mercantia has grown to involve hundreds of Italian and international artists, becoming an absolute reference point in the world of street theatre and Quarto Teatro.

Today, Mercantia is an unmissable event of the Tuscan summer: an event capable of suspending time, where art, wonder and magic merge with the timeless beauty of Certaldo, the village that gave birth to Giovanni Boccaccio. A festival to be experienced slowly, with curiosity and eyes always ready to marvel.