There is a moment, in any concert by The Kolors, when the stage stops being a stage and becomes a circle. The lights go down, the guitars talk to each other, and Stash closes his eyes to listen to the audience. It is right there, in those minutes of improvisation, that the Neapolitan trio, made up of Antonio "Stash" Fiordispino on vocals and guitar, Alex Fiordispino on drums, and Dario Iaculli on bass, also found itself in Zurich, at the end of the show at Komplex 457 last December, as part of their Europe Tour 2025. There, in the dressing rooms, we met them right after the performance for a conversation that, months later, says more than just the moment: it tells a philosophy.
Today, as "Rolling Stones", their new single released at the end of March, climbs the radio charts, and the Italian summer prepares to welcome them with The Kolors Live 2026, we reopen that notebook. Also because the promise made that evening, between a joke about the world of Swiss watchmaking and an authentic smile, is about to be kept in an even more important way: on 17 July 2026 the band returns to Switzerland, to Piazza Grande in Locarno, for one of the most prestigious appointments of the European calendar, Moon & Stars.
It was the third time in three years that The Kolors met the Zurich audience. First the stadium, two years ago, with its adrenaline-fuelled energy. Then Zauberberg, the following summer, with a more festival-like atmosphere. And finally Komplex 457, a club-sized venue, intimate and vibrant.
"Every concert is a world of its own," Stash told us shortly after coming off stage, his voice still warm from the performance. "But tonight a truly incredible energy was created. It reminded me of our beginnings. The club, in my opinion, is exactly the natural habitat of a band like ours: a power trio where the audience too is part of the overall sound. Tonight you could feel that 100%."
The observation is no small thing. In an age where success is often measured by capacity, The Kolors claim the intimate dimension as the most authentic one. A courageous position, especially for those who, after being launched on Amici in 2015, have gone through ten years of growth, filling stadiums and performing on a European tour across Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
When we asked him what changes in their approach between a small venue and an arena, Stash was clear: nothing is programmable. "It all depends on the audience in front of us, not only on the quantity but on the type. We are lucky because our sonic message embraces from the grandmother to the granddaughter. But it depends a lot on how people react, on the alchemy that is created."
A band, according to him, is the reflection of who is in front of it: "If you see that people want rhythm, you slot in jam sessions. Tonight we did improvised things that were not in the setlist. The audience commands, the audience decides. Improvisation, to which we devote almost a third of the show, is the result of what the audience asks of the band."
It is difficult to overestimate what "Italodisco" has meant for the band's trajectory. Six platinum records in Italy, over 305 million streams, charts conquered all over Europe. But above all, a revelation.
"Italodisco took away a lot of beliefs from us," Stash explained. "If you had asked me ten years ago what my first concert in London as an international artist would have been like, I would have told you something completely different from what then happened. We realised that, regardless of language, Italodisco was the turning point."
And then a sentence that sounds like a manifesto: "There is no language in music. Seeing three thousand people in Poland singing Festival Bar without knowing what Festival Bar is, an Italian thing from the eighties, made us understand that people perceive a mood, a state of mind, a message that goes beyond language. The gift that Italodisco gave us is to focus on genuineness, on authenticity. Whether it is in Chinese or in ancient Aramaic, what matters is that it has its own identity."
A previous interview with the band had told how "Italodisco" was born in just a few minutes, almost by chance. A story that has set a precedent within the trio. "We realised that this is the most beautiful way to make music," Stash confirmed. "A song, in its most authentic embryo, is born in a few seconds. Travelling a lot, you are seduced by places, by the people you meet, by how they know you in places where you are not Italy. That thing triggers the mechanism of the search for the authentic."
The voice notes of the iPhone have become the band's creative archive: "It happens to us to quickly record in the car, on a plane, at the bar, at night, at the restaurant, at a motorway service station. On one hand we hate the hyper-technological advent of the social world, on the other we are grateful that at any moment we can press REC and record a sound memory."
After the consecutive successes of Karma, Un ragazzo una ragazza and Tu con chi fai l'amore, we asked him how one manages the pressure of maintaining that creative continuity while working on a new album. Stash's answer was disarming in its simplicity: "By not giving a damn about it."
And he explained: "We realise that it comes naturally to us to write songs that people like. But above all we realise that we are lucky, and luck is precisely realising it. There are moments in life when you can't focus on how beautiful what you are living is, and you understand it only years later. We have the luck of realising it now."
On the album in progress, the words are measured but revealing: "We are studying the record. We have completely different material from one song to another, and it is hard to choose which will be the next single, in what way to release the album. We want it to leave a mark at least in our lives. We are thinking of releasing it in a somewhat unconventional way, surprising people, giving back the positive emotions they are giving us."
Five months later, part of that vision has already materialised. The single "Rolling Stones," released on 27 March, was immediately the most-played song on the radio in its debut week, conquering first place in the EarOne Airplay chart. A dive into the freshest and most contagious reggae, with a music video starring Eva Henger and Gianni Celeste. The album, on the other hand, remains a carefully kept mystery, but that "unconventional way" can already be glimpsed.
One of the most amusing moments of the interview came at the end, when a fan from French-speaking Switzerland asked whether The Kolors would come to Geneva. Stash, a declared fan of Swiss watchmaking, did not hide his enthusiasm: "I really want to go to Geneva, it has been a dream forever. I am a fan, fan, totally crazy fan of the world of Swiss watchmaking. It all depends on whether Gianluca Tozzi takes us to Geneva or not." Having the last word that evening was their manager and tour manager Gianluca Tozzi, who was at the meeting and replied with a smile.
Five months later, the dream has transformed. Not Geneva, but something equally prestigious, perhaps even more so: Moon & Stars in Locarno. The festival that has hosted Bob Dylan, Elton John, Sting and the biggest names in international pop will open its Piazza Grande stage on 17 July 2026 to The Kolors. A recognition that certifies the band's international status and marks another step of their roots in Switzerland.
In Locarno, however, The Kolors will not be alone. The evening of Friday 17 July is one of the most anticipated of the festival and brings together three different souls of contemporary pop. It will be the Neapolitan trio itself that opens the Piazza, warming up the crowd right before the two headliners: British pop star Rita Ora and Norwegian producer and dj Alan Walker, the author of electronic anthems with hundreds of millions of streams such as "Faded" and "Alone." Gloria Amelia and Nicolò Martire complete the evening's line-up. The gates of Piazza Grande open at 5.30 pm, the concert starts at 7.15 pm.
The appointment with The Kolors is only one piece of a line-up that, from 9 to 19 July 2026, turns Piazza Grande into one of the most important stages in Europe. And Italy, this year, takes a leading role. The opening evening on 9 July speaks Italian with Emis Killa and Rkomi, among the leading names in rap, and Sal Da Vinci, an emblematic voice of Neapolitan song. On 16 July it is the turn of Max Pezzali, who brings the generational anthems of 883 to Piazza Grande, and of Noemi, one of the most solid performers of Italian singer-songwriter pop. Alongside them, the festival's big international names: Duran Duran, Jamiroquai, OneRepublic, Lewis Capaldi, Roxette and Sarah Connor.
Here is the full programme, evening by evening:
Thursday 9 July: Emis Killa, Rkomi, Sal Da Vinci, Weekend Phantom, Daniel Kemish
Friday 10 July: Gölä, Bligg, EifachBen, Sento, Ikan Hyu
Saturday 11 July: Roxette, Kim Wilde, Dario Hess Band, Skip
Sunday 12 July: Duran Duran, Hurts, Happy For Real, Julie Fox
Monday 13 July: Jamiroquai, LP, Noorai & Steven, Motema
Tuesday 14 July: OneRepublic, Jessie J, Pascal Gamboni, The Vad Vuc
Wednesday 15 July: Lewis Capaldi, Giant Rooks, Seulfa, Noemi Beza
Thursday 16 July: Max Pezzali, Noemi, Nina Valotti, Tobias Jensen
Friday 17 July: Alan Walker, Rita Ora, The Kolors, Gloria Amelia, Nicolò Martire
Saturday 18 July: Trauffer, Stubete Gäng, Heimatliebi, Lea Wildhaber, Johnny Nabu
Sunday 19 July: Sarah Connor, Wincent Weiss, Laskaar, Sivilian
Tickets for all dates are available on the official Moon & Stars website.
The band's summer tour, produced by Friends & Partners in collaboration with Colorsound, will start on 3 July at the Mirano Summer Festival and will tour all over Italy, with a single Swiss date. Here is the full calendar:
3 July 2026: Mirano (VE), Mirano Summer Festival
17 July 2026: Locarno (Switzerland), Moon & Stars, Piazza Grande
18 July 2026: Assisi (PG), Assisi Summer Festival, Rocca Maggiore
4 August 2026: Gavorrano (GR), Teatro delle Rocce
14 August 2026: Asiago (VI), Asiago Live 2026, Piazza Carli
Tickets are available on Ticketone and at the usual authorised outlets.
The encounter in the dressing rooms of Komplex 457 left us with the feeling of a band that is sure of itself not out of arrogance but out of clarity. The Kolors know what brought them here (authenticity), they know what they are looking for (the alchemy with the audience) and they know what they don't want (the pressure of the market). And next summer, under the stars of Piazza Grande, Locarno will have the chance to verify it live.
