Sigur Ros save French festival!
Aug
19
Written by:
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Remember how we told you about La Route du Rock, the French indie music festival that was in danger of financial meltdown?
The story so far: Last week’s three-day event at Saint Malo in Brittany needed to attract at least 14,000 paying punters to break even and guarantee the festival’s future. However, mere days before the kick-off, it was rumoured that only 8,000 tickets had been sold. The festival director told the media that La Route du Rock was in financial trouble. The festival’s website featured a begging letter asking fans for donations. Now read on…
La Route du Rock took place in Saint Malo on 14-16 August, as scheduled. And what do you know? The festival welcomed over 16,000 fans! Despite unseasonably cool weather, at least 5,000 fans came for each of the three nights.
The attendance was healthy enough to ensure the survival of the bi-annual trip to Brittany. “There will be winter and summer shows in 2009,” declared festival director François Floret, who only days before had been downbeat about the event's future.
Floret and his team will surely be toasting Sigur Ros (left, onstage at the festival). Promoting their much-fancied new album 'Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust', the Icelanders drew fans from across Europe.
“All their English shows are sold out,” festival-goer and Sigur Ros fan Andrew Dowset from Bristol explained to local newspaper Ouest France. “We looked for a date in Europe that wasn’t too far from where we live, and that’s how we found out about La Route du Rock.”
Cynical readers will probably wonder if the festival organisers were overplaying their poor-mouth act just to generate extra publicity. However, painting your festival as a dead man walking is hardly going to attract floating voters. That said, 6,000 extra punters don’t just walk up to a geographically-isolated festival at the last minute, as we’re lead to believe here.
Whatever the reasons, France’s much-loved indie festival seems set for a stable future. The sea air obviously works wonders.
From La Route du Rock 2008, here are festival saviours Sigur Ros with 'Hoppipolla':