2,055,000
This is the impressive number of paid entries accumulated by the 31 biggest festivals in the West last summer, between mid-May and mid-September 2023. The top trio of the most attended festivals is, without surprise: Les Vieilles Charrues (273,000), Hellfest (240,000) and the Interceltique festival (165,000). Four other events exceed 100,000 spectators: the Norman festival Beauregard first with 150,000 entries, then follow the Poupet in Vendée (105,500), the V & B fest in Château-Gontier (100,500) and the Chants de marin in Paimpol (100,000).
In Brittany, yes, but not only…
We have known it for a long time (Interceltique de Lorient is celebrating its 53rd edition this year): the Brittany is a land of musical festivals. In summer, as in winter (Les Trans since 1979). The 2023 figures presented here confirm the myth. More than a million paying spectators were recorded in the four Breton departments. And it is Finistère which is in the firmament of the Western lighthouse: 515,000 spectators recorded in its seven biggest festivals!
THE Pays de la Loire recorded 608,000 entries, around the four big locomotives which are the Hellfest, the Poupet, the V & B fest and the Nuit de l’Erdre.
In Normandythe counters are close to 330,000 spectators, mainly with the Calvados festival Beauregard (150,000) and the Papillons de Nuit (92,000) in the South Channel.
And then…
For obvious reasons of readability, this map could not show all the festivals. So no more modest events… For example: the Artzimutés in Cherbourg (10,000 entries), God save the Kouign in Penmarc’h (5,000), or Biches at L’Aigle (4,000). Not to mention those that are completely free (e.g.: Cornouaille festival, 150,000 visitors to Quimper). But it is with regret… Which can legitimately lead us to conclude that attendance at musical festivals in the West must exceed 3 million spectators.
The CNM (National Center for Music) has published a study on current music festivals in France in 2022.
This article is taken from the special edition “Music in the West”, all the summer festivals, published Saturday May 18. 52 pages, €2.90.
