SIMPLY RED are heading back to one of their favourite Italian festival settings, with Mick Hucknall and the band confirmed for the 2027 edition of Lucca Summer Festival.
The Manchester soul and pop favourites will perform at the Historic City Walls Area in Lucca on Friday 30th July 2027, as part of their newly announced Summer Funk ’27 tour. It will be a particularly familiar return for Hucknall, who will be making his seventh appearance at Lucca Summer Festival. The relationship between the singer and the festival stretches back years, making this latest announcement feel more like a reunion than a simple festival booking.
A RETURN TO LUCCA
SIMPLY RED have become one of Britain’s most successful bands, building a career that now stretches beyond four decades.
Fronted throughout by Hucknall, the band have sold more than 60 million records worldwide and have produced a catalogue packed with songs that have remained part of the soundtrack for several generations.
And there should be plenty of familiar material on the setlist when they arrive in Lucca – Fairground, Something Got Me Started, Money’s Too Tight (To Mention), Stars and Holding Back the Years are among the songs that have helped define the Simply Red sound, blending soul, funk and pop into something that has always worked particularly well in a live setting.
The band have also continued to evolve rather than simply looking backwards. Their most recent studio album, Time, arrived in 2023, while last year saw the release of Recollections, marking their 40th anniversary with new recordings of some of their best known songs.
PART OF A BIG ANNIVERSARY FOR LUCCA
SIMPLY RED are the second act announced for the 2027 Lucca Summer Festival, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.
The festival has already confirmed TAKE THAT for 20th July, with SIMPLY RED now following them onto a programme that is beginning to take shape.
There is also a change of scenery for the anniversary edition – For 2027, all of the festival’s concerts will take place in the Historic City Walls Area, giving the anniversary edition a different setting from the traditional Piazza Napoleone shows that have become synonymous with Lucca Summer Festival.
It is difficult to imagine a more fitting location for Simply Red’s return. Lucca’s historic surroundings have long been part of the appeal of the festival, creating the sort of backdrop that turns a concert into something a little more memorable.
SUMMER FUNK ’27
The Lucca appearance will form part of SIMPLY RED‘s extensive Summer Funk ’27 European and UK tour.
The tour follows the band’s 40th anniversary celebrations and their previous run of shows, which included almost 50 sold out dates across the UK, Europe and Latin America. Their Santiago performance was also captured for the live release Holding Back the Years: 40 Years of Simply Red, Live in Santiago.
For Lucca, though, this is about more than another date on a lengthy tour schedule.
Hucknall has built a genuine connection with the festival over the years, and his seventh appearance gives the 2027 edition another link to the event’s history as it reaches its 30th anniversary.
With TAKE THAT already confirmed and SIMPLY RED now joining them, the Lucca Summer Festival line-up is starting to look very interesting.
And with more names still to come, there is plenty more to discover before the festival returns in July.
SIMPLY RED PLAY LUCCA SUMMER FESTIVAL ON 30TH JULY 2027.
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