Rieti International Sacred Music Festival 2026: B2B merchandising for choirs, sacred music ensembles, dioceses, basilicas, partner sacred music festivals, specialist press, institutional sponsors

B2B merchandising for the Rieti International Sacred Music Festival 2026

Dates

Summer sacred music showcase on the Italian calendar, scheduled between June and July. The official calendar, edition theme and full venue list of the circuit are published on the festival website before the opening. The usual window falls between the second half of June and the end of July, with an opening that may run for up to four weeks for the main basilica concerts.

Venues

Rieti city circuit, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta as the historic main venue, the Basilica di Sant’Agostino as the contemporary sacred music concert venue, the Teatro Flavio Vespasiano as the closing concerts and collateral events venue, the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia di Roma — Rieti detached campus as the educational section venue, the historic churches in the centre (San Rufo, Santa Maria in Campitelli, San Francesco, Sant’Antonio Abate), the basilica cloisters as open rehearsal spaces.

Circuit

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Basilica di Sant’Agostino, Teatro Flavio Vespasiano, Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia — Rieti campus, historic churches in the centre (San Rufo, Santa Maria in Campitelli, San Francesco, Sant’Antonio Abate), basilica cloisters, collateral section venues and contemporary sacred music meeting rooms.

Organiser

Associazione Festival Internazionale di Musica Sacra, with the collaboration of the Comune di Rieti, Regione Lazio, Diocesi di Rieti, Ministry of Culture, Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Italian sacred music industry associations (Associazione Italiana Santa Cecilia, Feniarco, ANDCI, CEI — Ufficio Liturgico Nazionale, Fondazione Perusina di Musica Sacra) and international partner sacred music festivals (Festival de Musique Sacrée de Fribourg, Oregon Bach Festival, Festival de Saintes, Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, Boston Early Music Festival, Festival de Musica Religiosa de Cuenca).

The Rieti International Sacred Music Festival — sacred music showcase held in Rieti since 1990 — runs a calendar of sacred concerts in basilicas and historic churches, a choral competition programme, contemporary sacred music sessions, music criticism panels, focused sections on sacred music of a historical period or geographic area, a section dedicated to emerging choirs under 35, a specific section for contemporary sacred music and new commissions, and a specific attention to Gregorian chant, Renaissance and Baroque polyphony, twentieth-century sacred music and new electroacoustic sacred music practices. The festival brings to town choir directors, soloists, sacred music ensembles, leading chapel directors, conservatory directors, music critics, columnists, sacred music magazine directors and publishers, agents and organisers of sacred music festivals that work on the Italian and European sacred music axis.

For Italian and international choirs participating in the competitive sections and sacred concerts, ancient, polyphonic and contemporary sacred music ensembles presenting new programmes, partner dioceses hosting concerts in basilicas and historic churches, musical chapels of nearby cathedrals, editorial desks of trade and consumer specialist publications, sacred and classical music critics’ desks, sacred music academies and partner conservatoires, international partner sacred music festivals, institutional sponsors (Comune di Rieti, Regione Lazio, Diocesi di Rieti, Fondazione Varrone) and corporate sponsors, organisers of the collateral sections that work at the Rieti International Sacred Music Festival, Corp-Merch.IT coordinates from its Milan operational hub a tailor-made programme that opens with the reception of the choir’s, ensemble’s, diocese’s or sponsor’s graphic files, continues with the adaptation for the various customisation techniques (water-based screen print on GOTS-certified organic cotton for basilica-concert shoppers, hot foil stamping on FSC-certified paper for press kits and catalogue booklets, computerised embroidery for premium tote bags, laser engraving on walnut wood or Maniago steel for high-end welcome bags, fine-art print on Hahnemühle or Canson paper for author’s scores in limited editions for sacred music collectors) and ends with the physical pre-production sample, the AQL 2.5 quality control and the delivery to the historic church, the choir director’s hotel, the press desk, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta or the Basilica di Sant’Agostino. For editorial materials and author’s scores destined to collectors we work with partners specialised in climate-controlled transport, so that catalogues, score dossiers and sacred music librettos arrive in impeccable condition despite the summer Lazio climate.

Invoicing for entities with an Italian VAT number goes out in EUR with 22% VAT through the Exchange System (SdI) of the Agenzia delle Entrate, delivery to the recipient code or certified email provided by the buyer. For editorial catalogues and art materials the reduced VAT rate of 10% applies, for books and art publications the 5%, according to current regulations. Reverse charge for intra-EU buyers registered in the VIES, split payment for public administration entities, recipient code or certified email for electronic invoice delivery. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we provide a sustainability sheet per order with Scope 3 CO₂e estimate under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on internal routes and from the production supply chains stated, in line with ESRS E1, E5 and S2.

Festival calendar and Rieti logistics

The festival calendar falls between June and July and Rieti’s position, an inland Lazio town halfway between Rome and L’Aquila, conditions the last-mile logistics: direct deliveries to the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, to the Basilica di Sant’Agostino, to the Teatro Flavio Vespasiano and to the circuit venues must be coordinated with the loading windows published by the festival production; a buffer at a partner hotel in the centre (Hotel Quattro Stagioni, Hotel Ristorante Zi Maria, Hotel Miramonti, Hotel Cavour) or at our Milan hub reduces the risk of out-of-window delivery. Early-summer motorway traffic on the A24 Rome – L’Aquila and on the SS4 Salaria conditions deliveries, and in coincidence with the academic year end closures (the first days of June are historically a transition moment) routes to Rieti may register delays; it is often useful to pair venue delivery with a buffer at an affiliate hotel in the centre of Rieti, a proximity warehouse in the Cathedral area and a second delivery to the historic church or the Teatro Flavio Vespasiano within the official set-up window, once the production has confirmed the recipient, the gate and the pass. For programmes that span multiple operational venues (Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Basilica di Sant’Agostino, historic churches in the centre, Teatro Flavio Vespasiano, Conservatorio) we prepare separate packing lists for each destination with dedicated labelling of the on-site contact and a per-concert calendar.

Production and logistics towards Rieti and the circuit

Before starting production, graphics, quantities per recipient, packaging and named delivery point must be confirmed. Historic church, basilica, loading gate and on-site contact must be verified against the manual published by the festival production; the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the Basilica di Sant’Agostino and the historic churches in Rieti’s centre are not addresses open to receiving parcels and any address must be tied to a confirmed loading window. The summer Lazio climate conditions the delivery windows, and for this reason a buffer at a partner hotel in the centre or a proximity warehouse in the Cathedral area often reduces the risk of out-of-window delivery, paired with venue delivery with a phone warning and bilingual packing list addressed to the recipient.

Typical print runs for a Rieti International Sacred Music Festival programme range from two hundred to two thousand pieces per code; editorial scores and sacred music librettos start at fifty copies; shoppers for basilica concerts reach one thousand five hundred pieces; welcome bags for invited choir directors sit at one hundred fifty pieces total split by delegation; coordinated drinkware for circuit venues moves between two hundred and five hundred pieces per venue. The optimal production window runs from eight to twelve weeks before opening, with a three-week pre-production window for graphics and a ten-day buffer for physical delivery. For programmes requiring certified fine-art print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag or Canson Baryta Photographique, certified for author’s scores in limited edition, we add two weeks of drying and one week of climate-chamber conditioning before packaging.

For corporate clients who want a representative kit destined to the festival’s top sponsors, we produce a coordinated set in FSC-certified cardboard with hot foil stamping of the corporate brand and the edition theme: a GOTS-certified organic cotton shopper, an author’s score in limited edition (three numbered and certified copies with the choir director’s signature on the white margin), an editorial volume of the circuit’s book series, a Maniago-steel bottle engraved with the recipient’s name, a leather score dossier folder with inserts in FSC-certified paper. The kit is delivered in a single FSC-certified two-wave cardboard box, book opening, closure ribbons and customised tag.

Payment options include bank transfer at 30 days from invoice date for clients with Italian VAT, 30% advance for the first order, improved conditions after the first 90 days of history. For corporate and institutional clients with a supply contract, a 12-month framework agreement with quarterly review is available. Corp-Merch.IT accepts main credit cards for orders below five thousand euro and coordinates with the client’s reference bank for invoice advances, Ri.Ba and SEPA Direct Debit for recurring clients. The supply contract includes specific confidentiality (NDA) clauses for sensitive commercial materials and a limitation on the client’s designs, graphics and colour combinations agreed for twelve months from delivery.

Frequently asked questions