Paléo ends with a storm after cooking up a storm of music all week
- Catherine
- Jul 28, 2013
- 3 min read
On Sunday afternoon at 15:00 during the last press conference of Paléo 2013, the storm clouds were already beginning to gather over the L'Asse grounds. A massive storm then arrived a couple of hours later just after the last violinist had played the last note and clarinettist Paul Meyer had taken a bow at the classical music concert which is a Sunday tradition at the festival. The heavens then opened. Everyone ran to shelter to escape the strong winds, rain and hail.
This particular storm had been predicted over a week ago and Paléo was prepared. This was in contrast to the sudden and unexpected storm on Tuesday night in which the festival organisers were only given 30 minutes warning. Nevertheless, despite the obvious difficulties of the disruption to public transport on Tuesday, and the subsequent cancellation to the final concert of that evening, Paléo has announced that this has been another successful year.
The installation of the new Les Arches stage worked well, and the feedback from the public was good. The bigger stage meant that smaller groups could have the chance to reach a wider audience. There were a couple of issues with sound at one or two of the concerts, and a few teething troubles with the circulation of the public between the stage and other areas. They felt that perhaps because of this big new stage, the Detour tent tended to get forgotten so perhaps this area needs to form its own identity a bit more, but the organisers were, on the whole, happy with the new Les Arches.
Photo above: A Paléo crowd listening to Paul Meyer and Le Concert Européen in front of Les Arches, the new Paléo stage
Jacques Monnier, Paléos music programmer (you can read more about him in French in a Swiss Info interview here), announced that the big headline acts this year had been very successful. Neil Young (particularly when he played "Like a Hurricane" through the Tuesday storm!) Dizzie Rascal, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins, Arctic Monkeys and Nick Cave were well received. Also generating a lot of buzz were acts such as the "Bloody Beetroots" concert who played late on Thursday night, along with the concert of Makoomba who played in the Dome and also Les Tambours du Burundi with their electrifying drumming.
Photo above: Jacques Monnier - Music Programmer of Paléo
Keeping the balance of music right to suit all generations was important to Paléo. Daniel Rossellat explained that the dates of other music festivals in Europe usually coincided with the end of school or university, so the age profile of festival attendees tended to be younger, but as many Paléo lovers have grown up with the festival and faithfully return each year, their music tastes change as they grow older. Rossellat also pointed out that when visitors come from other festivals to Paléo they are astonished at the relaxed ambiance (mainly due to the thousand of volunteers who work there) and that there are sit down restaurants at the festival with a wide choice of food on offer.
The subject on everyone's lips this year at Paléo was of course the weather which ranged from tropical heat to tropical storms. Not only was it a talking point amongst the public but also amongst the local police who witnessed some amazing scenes on Tuesday night as they directed fans back to their cars and onto the public transport. Apparently many fans got so completely soaked they stripped off all their wet clothes down to their underwear to head off home, so there were interesting sights to be had!
Photo above: Cooling off at the Swisscom water spray There will be a selection of images of the bands and the sights and sounds of Paléo 2013 posted on this site over the next couple of days. We hope you have enjoyed the Living in Nyon coverage and in particular, the articles written by Jonas, our resident writer at Paléo. Next year Paléo will be from 22nd to 27th July 2014, the line up will be on April 1st and tickets on sale from the 9th April.