The XXIII Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra has announced that the 2024 edition was one of the most seen in its history.

According to a press release, the festival saw 9,000 audience members attend and 700 artists participate.

Hans-Albert Courtial, president of the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra said, “Thinking about this year’s festival, I believe that this was intended to express and remember the words that my beloved Pope Paul VI addressed to the artists in the speech that closed the Second Vatican Council in 1965: ‘This world in which we live needs beauty so as not to sink into despair.’ It is what we need today and it is what our festival wants to instill: joy, beauty and truth in our hearts, and this is a precious fruit.”

The festival was held in five different sacred venues including Saint Paul’s Basicila, San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore, and The church of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola.

The festival opened in October with Verdi’s Requiem which was broadcast worldwide on Rai.