Festival // Vieilles Charrues

When? From 18/07/2019 to 21/07/2019 Where? Carhaix, Britanny, FRANCE

One of the biggest French festival and surely one of the most famous has based in Carhaix went huge one again for the 28th time. This year, a new theme was given by the festival and it was about carnivals, and we must admit that we met thousands of costumed and masked people throughout this emblematic festival which is considered as "the place to be" during the summer.

If we had to give you a comparison of the size of this festival, whether its area, atmosphere or headliners, we would quote Glastonbury without any doubt. With a surface area of more than 11 hectares - or 15 football fields - and thousands of litres of beer served daily until shortage, the Vieilles Charrues are considered as one of the heavy trucks of the French festivals. It's true that this is undoubtedly a huge festival where more than 280.000 festival-goers parade during these four days.

With the magazine team we decided to focus on some concerts that filled our eyes with sparkles like the one of Aya Nakamura. We no longer present this French artist from Bamako who was launched on the international stage in just few months thanks to her smashed hit 'Djadja'. This R'n'B singer tinged with lots of Afrobeat sounds was the festival star this summer. Even if it's in French if you hear: “Oh Djadja, y'a pas moyen Djadja” it's not impossible that this entertaining chorus already turns in a loop in your heads. Aya’s strength is to revisit themes that have drawn ink since ever such as friendship, deception or even money but in a 2.0 way with youth slang. We must admit that the 24-year-old singer make dance the whole crowd with ‘Pookie’ – recently remixed into featuring with Lil Pump – ‘Copines’ and ‘Sucette’ featuring rapper Niska in front of a raging audience.

We also wanted to congrat Di#se's dazzling performance – one of the magazine's favourite breakthrough artist that we had the chance to interview for the June's edition – which left a strong memory to festival-goers. The rapper from Quimper – one of the biggest cities in Brittany – had a first and emotional time at Les Vieilles Charrues. His impressive gig played with a pouring rain left the crowd on fire with the performance of this showman. Di#se – whose real name is Désiré – boosts his popularity before the release of his first album Parfum. It would even seem that Di#se will soon overshadow Columbine and Lorenzo renowned rappers also from Brittany.

We were frankly impressed by the number of free goodies offered throughout the festival, both merchandising with the effigy of the brands present at the festival like Audika and Leclerc, and essential ones such as sanitary protections, ear plugs, sun cream, cap etc. Everything was free - within the available stocks of course - and it's important to congrat this initiative. In terms of catering, we once again applaud the festival team who decided to delight our taste buds with the impressive number of choices such as unmissable crêpe and galette, kebab stands and exotic dishes. It was impossible to stay hungry.

In brief, we keep a very fond memory of this Britain festival considered one of the most awaited of the year with remarkable headlines with amazing artists such as Martin Garrix, Petit Biscuit, David Guetta, Black Eyed Peas... passing by a very heavy Hip-Hop scene with Lomepal, Georgio, PLK, Kikesa, Moha La Squale, Columbine, etc. We were clearly not disappointed and we want more!

Words © The Magazine Team Photography © Nico M