Kappa FuturFestival is Italy’s most stylish rave

At the thirteenth edition of Kappa FuturFestival in Turin, Italy — or Kappa, as the locals call it — over 125,000 attendees flocked to Parco Dora on a mission to rave. This year, it was hard to resist the lineup of superstar DJs: Peggy Gou, Solomun, Four Tet, Armin van Buuren, Skrillex, Michael Bibi, and Disclosure being some of the 120 artists performing the three-day EDM event.

Beyond the music, the festival was a space where the worlds of sportswear and music collided: The Italian sport and streetwear brand Kappa is a namesake of the festival, and its spirit and history was imbedded in the entire sun-soaked affair.

For many, Kappa rings a nostalgic bell. Its “Omini” motif of two naked models sitting back to back is the equivalent of Nike’s Swoosh logo or Adidas’s three stripes in Europe. You could spot the iconic insignia across Kappa FuturFest’s merch this year, dotted among the crowd of attendees in speckles of black and “aqua green.” This year’s limited-edition capsule line was a reflection of the brand's vast archive and long history with music.

For Kappa, their collaboration with the techno festival was in their DNA. The founder of Kappa, Maurizio Vitale, is the father of one of the festival’s three partners, Juni Vitale. After rebranding from a sock manufacturer to a full-blown lifestyle company in the late ’70s, Kappa became a pioneer in sportswear. It’s often cited as the first fashion brand to embellish its logo on sports jerseys for top athletes. It can be seen everywhere from from ski slopes to football clubs (Juventus, A.C. Milan, and F.C. Barcelona). At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, track star Carl Lewis famously wore a Kappa jersey and went on to secure four gold medals.

It wouldn’t be long until the brand went from the field to the stage, though. By the ’90s, Kappa evolved into an underground athleisure fixture for ravers. During his time working in product placement for Kappa, Gian Luca Brignone, who currently serves as Partner and Chief Innovation Officer at Kappa FuturFestival, says electronic music has always been a top priority for the brand. “I remember going around with bags of Kappa gear. They used to call me the Kappa man,” he recalls. “We’d walk into clubs, try to get people to wear it, take a picture, and hope that it would end up in a magazine.”

That same gonzo and fashion-forward spirit felt alive on the festival grounds. After I arrived at this year's festival, which took place July 3-5, I pushed through hoards of people crowding at merch stands to cop pieces. After I got through the throng, I saw those same people rush to snag spots in front of the park’s towering steel beams to snap photos of themselves in the clothes to immortalize the moment.

As I hovered above crowds of thousands sweating and swaying, the brand’s spirit and history felt ineffable. Kappa's initial rise came in conjunction with the rising tides in music culture. Kappa got their name off the ground with guerrilla-style promotions by bribing bouncers at clubs, tossing hats off festival stages, which eventually landed placements with celebrities like Eminem and the Spice Girls.

“I was very lucky to have my first boss at Kappa, who used to be a radio DJ and a big punk rock fan,” Brignone says. “I remember he told me to touch on the underground scene because they’re filled with tastemakers. He was right. We happened to be at the right place at the right time and grew with it.”