On a roundabout, a giant rusty electric guitar some five meters high signals to festival-goers that the bus, which provides transport from one of France's largest parking lots, has arrived at its destination. Two-hundred-and-forty-thousand rock and metal fans use this junction every year to get to Hellfest, the biggest extreme music festival in France, if not Europe (in competition with Wacken Open Air in Germany). This year, it ran from Thursday, June 27, to Sunday, June 30, in the heart of the vineyards of Clisson, near Nantes in western France.
Its success is undeniable: The four-day passes (€329) for this 17th edition, put on sale in two installments, in July and October 2023, sold out in less than an hour on each occasion, even before any of the programmed artists had been revealed. Ditto for the day tickets (€69) put on sale in January. With a budget of €40 million this year, Hellfest is the most expensive French music festival.
Among the 184 bands on the bill, the presence of Foo Fighters, Prodigy, Royal Blood and Shaka Ponk attest to the organizers' desire to open up to more mainstream rock artists. And above all, a desire to renew their headliners, at a time when historic bands (Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer) are gradually drawing to a close.
"I wouldn't say no to having a Muse, Placebo or Green Day in the next line-up. Taylor Swift, on the other hand, is a no-no," joked Ben Barbaud, founder of the festival, at the press conference held on Sunday afternoon. With the festival's communications manager Eric Perrin at his side, Barbaud presented a glowing assessment of this 2024 edition. These included the success of the first Hellfest Kids event for local schoolchildren, as well as the new Hellcare prevention system, which enables festival-goers to report suspicious behavior on the site (alcohol, drugs, sexual violence). "The fire department found this year's festival much calmer and more peaceful than usual. The weather conditions certainly contributed to this," said Barbaud.
Although the rain came late on Saturday in Clisson, the heavy climate of the legislative elections didn't really seem to weigh on the metal fans. On site, there were no voting instructions, banners or message T-shirts. The general mood was one of celebration, at least on the surface.
"Opinions change," the refrain from French heavy metal band Mass Hysteria's recent single "L’Inversion des pôles," also has a particular resonance on this election weekend. However, the French industrial metal giants didn't perform this song on Mainstage 1 on Saturday night. Instead, the hard-hitting "Positif à bloc" was chosen to evoke the context. "Don't forget, people, happiness is revenge," called out singer Mouss Kelai, in top form. He follows with the militant "L'Enfer des dieux", dedicated to "the victims of the Bataclan, Nice and Palestine."
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