Fnac Indetendances Festival

Throughout the summer, fnac (a sort of French Waterstones) presents four weekends of up and coming music. Performing artists are all signed to independent labels, therefore minimising any boy band clone appearance and the music at the event is pure self made talent. So far, there has been three weekends full of buzzing music and next week will see the grand finale. To entice you to this free event, read about the three previous weeks.

The opening weekend was by far the best up until now but will undoubtedly be challenged by the final weekend. Spread over 3 days, with 10 performances on the Friday, 4 on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday, the 25, 26 and 27 of July was a weekend to remember. The opening night saw performances by 10 formidable artists including: Daguerre, Claire Diterzi, Loic Lantoine, Jehro, Mouss et Hakim, k, Les Wriggles, Féloche, Barbara Carlotti and Anis. A unique mix of style and sound was created, ranging from the folk-jazz-electro vibes of Féloche, the poppy-reggae mix of Jehro to the punk-rock beats from Daguerre.

The second weekend was divided in to two; dedication to soul, jazz and reggae on the Friday and hip-hop and rap on the Saturday. The most well-known underground artist to perform on this weekend was Tcheka; undeniably the only person to be able to create music based on l’Île traditions, African culture and his own style. Saturday then brought together a collection of some of the best underground French rap and hip-hop artists of this decade including Philemon, Svinkels, Jamed Deano and MAP.

The third weekend presented some more main stream performers. Friday night saw appearances from Broadway, Martina and Bang Gang, all of which have been compared to stars such as Radiohead, Velvet Underground and Gnarls Barkley. But don’t mistake ‘main-streem’ with regular pop chart music as these performers are said to be some of the most imaginative artists of the festival. The Saturday of the third week was dedicated to the bands; including an appearance from the English group, Pete & The Pirates.

Well, there you have it! Three formidable weekends, with one still to go; fnac has really put together a party to remember. If you are interested in going along to the final weekend, it takes place on Friday and Saturday the 15th and 16th. Enterance is free and you can expect to see performances from Caravan Palace, Missilli, Sporto Kantes, Orange Blossom, Spleen, Fancy and Keziah Jones. Enjoy!!! (don´t forget to book a nice Paris hotel, tents are smelly and cold, especially in September)