5-20 Aug 2006. This festival initially comes across as a bit of an American pastiche organisers promote it as a unique, multi-sensory event that unites the worlds best and most adventurous music-making in concert with the visual, literary and culinary arts but it includes a host of distinguished artists such as Antonio Pappano, Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Lang Lang, Joshua Bell an many more. With the charming Teatro Signorelli, the mediaeval open-air Piazza Signorelli and Fortezza Medicea as venues for the concerts, the festival also features lectures, art exhibitions, and receptions with culinary events and wine tastings. Frances Mayes, one of the festivals artistic directors, whose book and film, Under the Tuscan Sun helped introduce Cortona to the world, says: The Tuscan Sun Festival is a wonderful way of bringing the joys of Tuscany to life.