I first became aware of the Vieilles Charrues Rock Festival just after the first visit to our new holiday home near Carhaix in July 2002. It was the Carhaix council employees industriously putting up fencing all over the place to prevent the expected influx of visitors camping where they liked that gave the game away. We had to go home before the festival but Travis and Miarianne Faithfull were amongst the acts that played there that year. In 2003 one of my daughters and a friend bought a one day ticket and went to see REM. We dropped them off in the early afternoon, REM came on at about midnight and we went to collect them when we couldn't hear the bass anymore from our house 8-10 km away. The ticket was a very reasonable 23 euro, even more so when someone told me REM played the Point in Dublin the day before and tickets started at 40 euro. If I had known who Carlos Nunez was I would probably gone too. The 2004 festival was to have included Bowie until his heart op forced him to pull out.
It's huge, with at least 15 acts each day on 4 stages. Not all are widely known and only a few are in the super star league.
For the more traditionally minded on July 14th Carhaix becomes the centre of Breton culture with an invasion by Bagadans - Breton bands made up of pipes similar to bagpipes, oboes and drums. The morning is usually given over to a competion [concours national des bagadou de la 5eme categorie], with a parade of bagadans and cercle [Breton dancers] in the afternoon. The parade usually finishes with a composite bagad made up of all the bagadans that haven't made it to the finals of the competition. The effect created by a 'phalanx' of pipers 20 wide and 5 deep has to be experienced to be believed. I was there in '02, '03 & '04 and can't wait to be there in '05.
I'm so glad to know someone else here knows "Les vieilles charrues" . Welcome georgetreliving, we're almost neighbours, I live in Brest
"Les Vieilles Charrues" takes place each year on the third week-end of July and is welcoming about 50 000 persons per day, in 5 differents musical spaces . The musical programming, which is nowadays wellknown for its diversity, is always trying to line up international major artists with young promising bands.
Some of the artists invited since the creation of the festival in 1992 :
THE CURE IGGY POP JAMES BROWN DAVID BOWIE BEN HARPER REM JOE COCKER PRETENDERS PLACEBO MASSIVE ATTACK JOAN BAEZ MANU CHAO PATTI SMITH THE CRANBERRIES MARIANNE FAITHFULL BECK MACEO PARKER YOUSSOU N'DOUR SIMPLE MINDS CHEB MAMI ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION BURNING SPEAR EAGLE EYE CHERRY THE SILENCERS DE LA SOUL US 3 IAM NOIR DESIR MUSE U ROY THE WAILERS THE BLUES BROTHERS BAND JOHNNY CLEGG THE GLADIATORS BLACK UHURU 16 HORSEPOWER ADRIAN SHERWOOD FRANK BLACK JOSEPH ARTHUR HAWKSLEY WORKMAN DEATH IN VEGAS, LAURENT GARNIER? etc,
And last year, because Bowie wasn't here, Texas came without much warning .
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Que restera-t-il de notre sang mêlé au sel, sans trace dans les mémoires ? Une ultime navigation, trompeuse. Et des souvenirs, illuminés d'embruns. Mais condamnés au silence de la mer... Loïc Finaz.
Celtica, I'm sorry to say I've only visited Brest once to go around the chateau. Other than that I've passed through on my way to Brest airport before Ryanair stopped flying from there and on my way to St Rennan for a medieval festival.
Really enjoyed the festival, especially the re-enactors. There was a group called Aux Couleurs du Moyen Age playing there [and one of there CDs is in my CD player as I type this] and all their music was medieval in style if not in actual fact, including Breton, Spanish and Judeo-Spanish music.
I can't let the subject of festivals in Brittany pass without mentioning the Festival de Cornouaille held in Quimper in late July every year. Although things happen in various parts of the city, I think the best part happens next to the cathedral, although I was too embarrased to join my wife in taking part in learning Breton dancing
George
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