Song contest · February in Liguria
For record labels, competing and guest artists, management, communications agencies, broadcasters, corporate sponsors, music press, radio partners and institutions preparing a merchandise programme around the evenings of the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo — the song contest that opens the Italian music season and brings to the Ligurian city artists, professionals, press and public from all over Italy — and needing week-long stand merchandise, welcome kits for the artist delegations, coordinated giveaways for the public, Dopofestival evening items and representation material for the press conferences, ready in time for the festival week opening.
The Italian Song Festival in Sanremo is the song contest that every February opens the Italian music season and brings to the Ligurian city artists, record labels, management, broadcasters, music press, radio partners, corporate sponsors and public from all over Italy, with a calendar of competition evenings, coverage evenings, press conferences, meetings with the press, Dopofestival performances and institutional representation moments. The contest is run by RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana in collaboration with the Comune di Sanremo and with the support of Regione Liguria, and it touches the Teatro Ariston — the main hall of the event — together with the surrounding city areas, the press rooms, the interview spaces and the institutional spaces of the Comune. For the record labels, the competing artists and the sponsors accompanying the event, merchandise is one of the most important contact channels with the public, the press and the professionals: the festival-week stand merchandise, the welcome kit for the artist delegation, the giveaway coordinated with the event visual identity, the Dopofestival evening item.
For a merchandising programme around the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo, Corp-Merch.IT runs the full chain from its operational hub: receiving the record label or artist master graphic files (AI, EPS, PDF/X-4 with CMYK images at 300 dpi, FOGRA39 colour profile, bleed allowances for the perfect-bound print materials), adapting them to the personalisation techniques (water-based screen printing on GOTS-certified organic cotton for the branded T-shirts and sweatshirts, sublimation digital printing on drinkware and ceramics, laser engraving on small leather goods and metal accessories, embroidery on high-quality knitwear for premium polos and sweatshirts, hot-foil stamping in gold or silver foil on covers and packaging, four-colour offset printing on FSC-certified paper for posters and art prints, digital printing for the reduced runs of personalised materials per artist), physical pre-production sample with Pantone colour map and technical sheet, production on the Italian graphics and textile supply chains (Como weaving for GOTS-certified cotton, Milan printing houses for print materials, Florence bookbinders for numbered editions, Scandicci leather for leather accessories), and delivery to the record label reference warehouse, the artist delegation hotel, the Festival press room or a Sanremo consolidation warehouse on a slot confirmed by the label logistics contact. For labels handling several competing or guest artists we split into recipient-labelled lots, with distinct delivery addresses if a management headquartered in Milan or Rome wants to collect its share from its own warehouse.
The audience of the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo is a combination of competing-artist fans following the event from the Ligurian city, Italian song tradition enthusiasts returning to Sanremo for the festival week, music industry professionals operating between Teatro Ariston and press rooms, journalists of the music and lifestyle press following the event, broadcasters and radio partners transmitting from the Festival, delegations of music publishers and streaming platforms following the event, and representatives of the local authorities and regions sponsoring the event. A merchandise programme that respects these seven audiences converts much better than a single kit trying to cover them all. The competing-artist fan wants a branded T-shirt or sweatshirt with the artist name and the event claim; the Italian song tradition enthusiast wants an item coordinated with the event visual identity; the music industry professional wants a representation item branded with the label or the streaming platform; the music journalist wants a coordinated press kit and a selection of small-format items; the broadcaster wants a branded giveaway with the radio or TV partner mark; the institutional delegation wants an FSC-certified paper folder with the event programme, the evening technical sheet and the press-conference calendar; the local authority representative wants a small coordinated item that represents the city of Sanremo and the event.
A recurring case for our clients is the record labels following one or more competing or guest artists at the Festival: for these jobs we propose a coordinated neutral graphic base aligned with the artist and event visual identity (branded T-shirt, GOTS-certified organic cotton shopper, delegation welcome kit, coordinated press release) and add the specific evening details (artist name, song in competition, campaign claim) in a reduced run, so that each delegation member finds a specific memento of the evening they attended. For labels requesting printing on GOTS-certified organic cotton and FSC-certified paper, a frequent request, we run it with FSC and GOTS certified screen printers and printing partners. For the merchandise accompanying the Dopofestival evenings we mirror the logistics on the different evenings with a single operational contact.
The Italian Song Festival in Sanremo calendar is concentrated on the festival week and the evenings follow at regular intervals, with an inaugural evening opening the calendar of competition evenings, press conferences, interviews and the Dopofestival. For the record labels, artists and sponsors the gap between confirming participation and the event inaugural evening is normally under eight weeks, and any item that must be at the stand, in the delegation hotel or in the Festival press room for the inaugural evening must be closed and shipped at least one week before the debut. We work backwards from that moment: the artist branded merchandise production must close two–three weeks before the inaugural evening; the courier slot must be booked for the Thursday or Friday of the week before the Festival opening; the institutional addressee list must be finalised ahead of the press-conference calendar confirmation; the specific song or evening details only add a small reprint to an already-produced graphic base for the event.
For labels and management following several artists at the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo we mirror the logistics on the different delegations with a single operational contact and a per-artist print-run planning, with a dedicated MOQ price list for the festival week total volume. This split is a frequent request because the stand-merchandise audience that actually takes home a Festival memento is much smaller than the audience following the event on TV, and most labels do not want surplus material left in the warehouse after the last evening of the week.
GOTS-certified organic cotton branded T-shirts and sweatshirts, GOTS-certified organic cotton shoppers, coordinated lanyards for the artist delegations, branded insulated bottles, small coordinated stationery aligned with the event visual identity.
GOTS-certified organic cotton tote bags with water-based screen printing, coordinated postcards with iconic event images, ceramic fridge magnets from Caltagirone, small representation stationery for the Festival bookshop.
FSC-certified paper folders with hot-foil stamping of the mark, bilingual institutional brochures, evening and song-in-gro-technical-sheet, press-conference and interview programme, coordinated press release, welcome gifts for the delegations.
Limited-edition numbered art prints with the event mark, small coordinated stationery with the Festival mark, FSC-certified paper shoppers for the bookshop, multilingual labelling on request.
Before starting production we close graphic masters, quantities per artist and per recipient, packaging and named recipient. The final delivery address is locked against the artist tour manager or label logistics contact calendar: the artist delegation hotel in Sanremo (the Festival-partner structures in the city centre), the label reference warehouse in Milan or Rome, or the Sanremo office of the logistics partner that handles representation for the event. The Sanremo centre access constraints — in particular the Comune ZTL and the mandatory routes for commercial vehicles heading to the Teatro Ariston — condition the loading slots, which is why most labels choose early-morning or after-20:00 deliveries, when commercial vehicles are again allowed in the central areas of the city.
For an Italian programme routed through Milan the consignments are consolidated at the hub and shipped to Sanremo with 24–48 hour windows via BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express Italia, by appointment for institutional venues that require telephone notice. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with telephone notice and, on request, on-site set-up by our staff at the label stand, the delegation hotel or the Festival press room. For materials that require controlled-environment conditions (GOTS-certified textiles, art prints, numbered editions, Scandicci small leather goods) we coordinate transport with specialised partners. For kits bound for international delegations we run multilingual labelling (Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic) and tamper-evident pouch packaging with bilingual packing list in the recipient’s name. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a sustainability sheet per order with a Scope 3 CO₂e estimate under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Lombardy–Liguria leg and from the production supply chains involved, with material-level and leg-level breakdown usable for the client sustainability statement.
All Italian B2B orders are invoiced in EUR at the standard 22% VAT rate (with reduced 4%, 5% or 10% rates applied where the product category allows: publishing, art objects, PDO/PGI products) and routed through the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) of the Agenzia delle Entrate to the recipient code or the buyer’s PEC address. Corp-Merch.IT is an Italian VAT-registered operator, listed in VIES for intra-EU transactions, and handles reverse charge, split payment and self-invoicing for the public administration under current Italian legislation.
Eight–ten weeks is the safest window for production on the Italian graphics and textile supply chains and delivery to the artist delegation hotel in Sanremo or to the label warehouse in Milan. Six–seven weeks work when the product mix is simple, the artist graphics are already approved and the per-recipient quantities are already defined. For labels following several Festival artists we mirror the lots across all delegations with a single operational contact.
Only after the Festival organisation and the label logistics contact confirm the set-up window, the loading lane and the named recipient. Most labels combine the Teatro Ariston with the artist delegation hotel or with a Sanremo consolidation warehouse. For the evening-before inaugural evenings we propose delivery to the delegation hotel with twenty-four hours’ telephone notice.
Yes. Stand merchandise for the single artist, public giveaways, artist delegation welcome kits and Dopofestival evening items can be packed and labelled as distinct lots, with different delivery addresses if the label or management has more than one venue or more than one destination address (for example the artist delegation hotel in Sanremo for delivery, the label warehouse in Milan for storage, the Festival press room for journalists). For labels involving several artists we mirror the lots per artist and consolidate in recipient-labelled crates by logistics node.
No. Corp-Merch.IT is an external, independent B2B supplier that helps record labels, artists, management, broadcasters and sponsors prepare their own merchandise around the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo. It does not organise, sponsor or represent the Festival, the Teatro Ariston, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana or the sponsoring bodies of the event.
Corp-Merch.IT is an external, independent B2B supplier for record labels, artists, management, broadcasters and sponsors taking part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo. This page helps these parties prepare their own merchandise around the event. It does not represent the Festival, the Teatro Ariston, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, the Comune di Sanremo or Regione Liguria.