To ultimately reach 20,000, it may have been necessary to also count those who wandered around the parts of the fair open to the public but away from the mega-stage. But in the end, in addition to the diatribes about the numbers, everyone prefers to toast the year 2024 with Marco Mengoni in Cagliari: around 17,000 people filled the mega square. The only inconvenience? The long queues, especially between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., for those who had to enter from Via Pessagno, and the few chemical toilets available outside the various pavilions. Incidentally, after the performance of various DJs and the surprise welcome of Leonardo Pavoletti (HERE the news) at a quarter to midnight, he, the winner of the last Sanremo Festival, arrived. From “Guerriero” to “Muhammad Alì”, without forgetting of course his latest success “Due Vite”: in the audience there were many families with children and even people in their fifties and sixties. Mengoni's main fans? It's obvious to say that, but it was the same in Cagliari, with the women. Some missed New Year's Eve in the square, but waiting for the singer's performance had the effect of an adrenaline rush, having to endure the fact of being at the fair, and not in the center.
“Ajò Cagliari,” said Mengoni after the first song. “I want the next year to be more beautiful,” he then asked for the public’s help in the countdown, less than a minute before the stroke on January 1, 2024. No toasts, glass bottles were forbidden, but lots of hugs and selfies, plus fireworks that lit up the sky over Cagliari from the Sant'Elia area to the port area for at least ten minutes. Then all the other songs by Marco Mengoni: “We’re finally giving a concert in Sardinia again, I’m very happy,” he said from the stage. And the same was true for thousands upon thousands of Sardinians, but also some tourists who wanted to say goodbye to 2023 forever at the fair.