Friday evening at the FNAC LIVE Festival
Officially, this summer festival aims to inaugurate the new edition of Paris Plage. In reality, few people know it and prefer to see in him a large gathering 100% free instigated by the giant of the distribution of cultural products. On the square in front of the Town Hall, with the freshly silted quays of the 1st arrondissement as its neighbour, the musical event sets the scene and beats its full rhythm for four days to the rhythm of an ambitious programme open to all types of ears. A novelty since 2013, she invites herself into the salons d’apparat of the City Hall of Paris, staging a small side stage reserved for the afternoons. Arthur H, Christophe, Dick and Emilie de Biasio were there this year, under the wooded golds of the Republic.
Over the years, FNAC LIVE has emulated and federate an increasingly compact crowd of curious people, even if it means becoming a victim of its success. Last weekend, for his opus #4, the square cracked under the demographic density: 35 degrees in the shade, oozing bodies, the surrounding beer rays literally looted from their contents and, connected overpopulation obliges, general saturation of the telephone networks. As a result, we find ourselves where we can, around a security fence or standing on the fountain. Happy salmigondis of greens and too ripe, the appointment aggregates Paris in all its diversity. Mission accomplished for the triumphant Left!
The only haven of peace in this no man’s land: the courtyard of the Hotel, which welcomes the most privileged of all. Supreme Coquetry: the crash barrier becomes accessible this season on presentation of the VIP pass, 5D in hand or not. What a feeling of plenitude is it not to wiggle at the foot of the stage, without having made any effort to achieve it even though a band of pre-teens – under the convict for two hours now – is being crushed by the weight of the crowd against the bull bars? Diabolical.
As for the music, while Arthur H and Emilie Loizeau played it behind closed doors on the floors, the best line-up of the week took place on the big outdoor stage: Two Bunnies in Love, Glass Animals, La Femme, Breton, Gaëtan Roussel, Pedro Winter & friends (ie Para One and Boston Bun). Young and experienced, more or less indie and more or less tired, for a Friday evening resolutely turned towards eclecticism and open to music lovers of all faiths. B.B.
