Floating musicians beat virus blues in Italy

Floating musicians beat virus blues in Italy

Blues musicians in an Italian lakeside town came up with a novel way to please fans despite coronavirus restrictions - play from borrowed fishing boats to an audience on shore.

Italy’s floating musicians serenaded fans from fishing boats Location: Lake Trasimeno The audience listened from the shore to maintain social distancing (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) MAYOR OF CASTIGLIONE DEL LAGO, MATTEO BURICO, SAYING: "Today we have done something nice in Castiglione del Lago, we have used fishermen's boats and music, the blues.

Let's tell the truth - we felt like we were on the Mississippi Delta.

People really respected the social distancing rules, there were no gatherings, there was a lot of respect for what has really been an emergency.

We will get through it with a lot of caution and awareness." The performance was a taster for the annual Trasimeno Blues festival which will be held in August on a reduced scale (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) TOURIST FROM TUSCANY, ALICE ORLANDI, SAYING: "It was absolutely beautiful, a fantastic show.

We needed this after being cooped up at home for so long and we feared there would be no more concerts.

This was a real innovation, something to do in the future, performances on the lake.

Like this, we can stay far away but close together."