The comparison is certainly effective and also pronounced with an elegant premise: “I don’t want the friends of Carmagnola” but some buzz escapes in the classroom when, in the morning, the writer Ernesto Ferrero declares the following: “For the approximately one thousand events of an edition of the Book of Turin had a budget of 60 thousand euros. Less than that of the Pepper Fair of Carmagnola ». This is just to say of the importance that, beyond the bombastic declarations in the newspapers, the Piedmontese cultural policy assigned to the festival considered to be the pride of Turin.
The process is that of the political and cultural leaders of Piedmont in recent years relating to the alleged irregularities in the management of the Exhibition. Ferrero was in the courtroom as a witness having directed the event. Among the various aspects touched by the prosecutor Gianfranco Colace, also that of the choice of the Lingotto, managed by Gl Events, as the venue for the event. The suspicion of the public prosecutor is that there was an auction disruption because the Salone had to go to those premises. I, who was not involved in financial matters, guess it was to save on rent. But that place was not adequate: spaces, public transport, accommodation and the availability of parking were not enough for an event of that magnitude ».
Could another location be chosen? While not sparing criticism, according to Ferrero no: «As a structure, the Lingotto is very bad, but like it or not it was unavoidable. The only one we had and that we have. The city has no other solutions for events of this kind ».
For the writer, therefore, Turin had to bend to the situation “to guarantee pax fieristica”. According to the witness, “we were dealing with a monopolist and his requests could not be discussed too much. So much so that the Salone always takes place there ».