Les Francofolies de La Rochelle

Francofolies is the name of a music festival, the first time in the Charente-Maritime region took place in La Rochelle in France in 1985. Occur exclusively on artists from France or French-speaking countries. Since 1989, the Francofolies also found in Montreal, Canada, and since 1994 in Spa, Belgium.

Francofolies in La Rochelle

The French radio host Jean -Louis Foulquier founded the Francofolies in 1985., The Francofolies in La Rochelle is organized as a partnership between private and public investors. The festival name is borne by a private cultural association, which supported the festival by government grants and local and international sponsors such as Coca Cola and Reebok. The festival takes place every year in July in the port and the city center of La Rochelle and has become an important factor of the local economy, the conversion was according to the organizers of the 2002 around 70 million francs. In 1993 recorded the event around 90,000 visitors in 2002, around 101,000 visitors. Students make up the largest audience of the festival represents a share of 35 % (as of 2001). In 2003, the festival had to be canceled because of a strike of the stagehands and technicians ( intermittents du spectacle ), which meant a financial loss amounting to 1.5 million euros, according to estimates by the organizers. The Festival founder Jean -Louis Foulquier retired in 2004. The direction of the Festival first took over the former artistic advisor Didier Varrod and in the winter of 2004, Joel Breton, 2005, Gerard Pont of Morgane Production of new festival director. In the 2010s, the festival showed a slight decline spectators, while in 2011 to around 89,000 visitors came, there were around 85,000 in 2012.

Francofolies in Montreal

The Francofolies in Montreal, which was established in 1989 as an offshoot of the original by Alain Simard and Guy Latraverse now considered the biggest event for French-language music in the world. Since the 1996 edition of Félix Leclerc named after Félix Leclerc Newcomer Award will be presented at the Francofolies in Montreal, the winners will receive the opportunity for a tour to Paris. The event is held annually to ten days at the end of July, with the bulk of the concerts without admission takes place in downtown Montreal and only for the concerts of established artists admission is charged. It will involve more than 1,000 artists, the number of visitors rose late 2000s up to 900,000. The musical spectrum encompasses folk, chanson, hip hop, pop and world music. Plenty of free concerts are funded by public money and private sponsors like Ford. For the 15th anniversary festival was released in 2003 with EMI a free festival sampler.

Francofolies in other countries

Are or were there in Bulgaria (1991 ), Belgium ( since 1994), Argentina and Chile (1995) and in Germany (1996 and 2003 ) and Switzerland (1999 and 2003) More offshoot of the Francofolies.

While the Francofolies in Spa, Belgium has established since 1994, found so far only twice in Berlin, the first time in 1996 and the second time in 2003 in the culture brewery. The other offshoot proved to be less successful. So found in Bulgaria and South America instead of just two issues, as well as in Berlin and in Nendaz, Switzerland and later in Geneva. The initially announced for the 2013 event in Kinshasa has been postponed to 2014.