Rock en Seine unveils this Tuesday a first list of artists who will perform during its 2023 edition, including the 21-year-old American superstar Billie Eilish. A good catch that may allow the festival, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, to rejuvenate its audience.
“It will be his only French appointment at a summer festival,” Matthieu Ducos, director of Rock en Seine, told AFP. The Californian, seven-time Grammy winner, will headline on August 23, while the rest of the festival will take place on August 25, 26 and 27 at the Domaine national de Saint-Cloud.
Conquer “an audience that may never have come”
The Tube Performer. bad boy She is “an artist of the new generation who impresses because at 21 she already has a rich career”, emphasizes Matthieu Ducos. “She is already singing for the soundtrack of a James Bond while for other musicians it is the consecration of a career,” continues the director who expects a “quite crazy” show with her.
With this “very young artist who has a very large audience”, Rock en Seine hopes to attract an “audience that may never have come”, while the average age of this meeting is “around 30 years”. The 2022 edition of Rock en Seine was a record attendance with “more than 150,000 festival-goers from all over Europe” according to its organizers.
By 2023, Rock en Seine will also program big cars more in line with their DNA, Placebo and the Strokes, guitar groups. “The Strokes is a first for us, our paths have never crossed”, celebrates Matthieu Ducos. The placebo has already arrived.
Speaking of birthdays, there will also be electro group Chemical Brothers, who celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. “They were not in our first edition but in the second, in 2004”, recalls Matthieu Ducos. Florence + The Machine, Girl in Red, Flavien Berger, Foals and Yeah Yeah Yeahs have also been announced.
“Stressful” case for 2024
Last year, Rock en Seine had faced the discontent of its festival-goers on social networks because of a “golden pit”, a large VIP area located on one side at the foot of the stage, far from being filled with much of the public. day, preventing other fans from approaching. From the stage, stars like Nick Cave had mocked the lack of atmosphere in this square.
“This pot of gold will be a little less present and a little less big, like in 2018 and 2019, when nobody was talking about it”, promises Matthieu Ducos.
For 2024, Rock en Seine faces a bigger headache: its proximity of dates to the Paralympic Games makes it “a case study”, as the Ministry of Culture had specified in a December 2022 statement.
In October 2022, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had shuddered when evoking the need to cancel or postpone cultural (or sports) meetings in the summer of 2024 due to the massive mobilization of law enforcement during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. . Games.
“We are still in dialogue with the prefectural authorities, but to date we don’t have any guarantees, it’s a bit stressful,” says Matthieu Ducos. “We would like positive responses to arrive quickly to set options as of March 2023 (for the 2024 programming), if we miss this mark it can be detrimental,” underlines the manager.
Source: BFM TV
