Italia Wave is the festival that has everything: football, politics, comics, films, a triathlon and, yes, music.

Held last weekend in Livorno in Tuscany, its third home after stints in Arezzo and Florence, Italia Wave’s strength lies in the width and depth of what’s on offer. You could call it a music and arts festival, but that doesn’t explain the presence of former professional footballers Francesco Toldo and Predrag Pasic. They were here to talk about Inter Campus, the Milan club’s youth academy, which works with young players in deprived areas worldwide.

Then there was Gian Carlo Caselli, Turin’s chief prosecutor and former anti-mafia legal kingpin, discussing the Italian Constitution with Subsonica lead singer Boosta. You wouldn’t get that class of thing at Oxegen.

Musically, Italia Wave was also as diverse as you can get. While there was a strong reliance on UK stadium acts – Underworld, Groove Armada and Faithless all headlined – there was also reggae (Julian Marley), Catalan turbo folkpop (Ojos de Brujo), meat-and-two-veg indie (Editors) and a Finnish take on Afrobeat (JImi Tenor’s collaboration with Nigeria’s Kabu Kabu).

On the new music front, there were a couple of acts on the bill that Italia Wave had come across at the Eurosonic showcases in Groningen earlier this year. On the Record liked the cut of Danish grime-pop princess Lucy Love and French 1970s-style soft-rock revivalists Jamaica, while Italian acts My Awesome Mixtape and Il Genio warrant further investigation.

Add in a low ticket price (€60 for entry to all five days and nights of the festival) and a fantastic location by the sea and you can quickly begin to see the attraction of an event such as Italia Wave for locals and visitors alike.