Officially in Italy, ragtime has been recognized with the creation of the Italian Festival of Ragtime, as previously the small amount of information that was available dated back to the few historical facts in the stories of ordinary jazz. The festival was born in 1988 and was organized by one of the most influential jazz critics and the major Italian expert on ragtime, the journalist Gildo De Stefano -who is also artistic director-, and by an editor and columnist of the Italian daily ‘la Repubblica', Antonio Filippetti. The site of the first festival was the great auditorium of Monument St.Elmo Castle, located in the Certosa di San Martino, on the hill of Vomero (Naples). The initial Naples event program included three concerts by major Italian artists of ragtime: Marco Fumo,  Poggi Cesare,  and Antonio Ballista. Some subsequent festivals have had different locations. In 2008 the festival will take place in the summer near the famous Amalfitan Coast.  For further information, contact Gildo De Stefano at gildodestefano@libero.it .