The Chourmo group was formally established as a cultural association at the end of 2003, by the will of the organizers of the first Marina Café Noir Festival (October 2003) to give officiality and strength to the project, to better support the many initiatives that the historic Chourmo group has been carrying out in the city of Cagliari for more than a decade. The Association is based in Cagliari in the historic Marina district, the epicenter of the Association’s activities and the starting point of most of Chourmo’s extra-urban initiatives (the twinning with the “What if..” music festival and the “Manhattan Short film Festival” film festival, both in New York). The Association is made up of a group of members linked by a common passion for literature, music, theater, cinema and, more generally, for any creative language capable of transmitting and conveying its author’s vision of the world to the greatest number of potential users. The Festival and the Association, over time, have been able to improve the quality of the proposals thanks to the trust granted by institutions such as the Region of Sardinia, the Province of Cagliari, the Municipality of Cagliari, the Mibac project “An island in Festival”, the University of Cagliari, the Banco di Sardegna Foundation and last but not least by private sponsors. The Association, in addition to the support and participation offered to dozens and dozens of Sardinian writers and numerous associations and volunteers, has collaborated and collaborates with some of the most important cultural experiences on the island, from the Teatro di Sardegna to the Cada Die Teatro, from Jazz in Sardegna to Bocheteatro, from Cuec to Il Maestrale, from the Dessì Foundation to the Isola delle Storie di Gavoi, from Tajrà editions and productions to Here I stay records. Thanks to the varied typology of the offer, the association has succeeded in the difficult task of capturing the attention of a target between three and ninety years old. The name of the Association is a tribute to the Marseille writer (of Italian origins) Jean-Claude Izzo – for whose novels the definition of “Mediterranean Noir” was coined. At the same time, “Chourmo” is a universal word from one shore to the other of our sea, a word that well conveys the suggestion and spirit of a group of citizens and islanders who make sharing knowledge and social emancipation one of their strengths.