Golden bracelet on the right wrist, your key to passing all the spaces of the Bebop festival without having to show your credentials. On his back, the red, black and white T-shirt of this 38th musical edition for which he rolls up his sleeves and doesn’t count his hours. Gilles Fassot, 67, is the type not to do things by halves when he gets involved.
He gave forty years of his professional life to La Poste. So, retirement comes, in great shape “and to avoid the sofa”he looked for where he could be useful. “Oh, I did go to concerts from time to time, Telephone in Le Mans, Supertramp in Paris, or even Zaz, my first Bebop concert in Coulaines in 2010, he remembers. But from there to imagine that I would help the festival… Finally, it happened thanks to the director, Bruno Leroy, who was looking for volunteers. That was fourteen years ago, and I’m still here. We form a great team in a good atmosphere. »
Eighty volunteers
Saturday, early afternoon, at the Le Mans exhibition center (Sarthe), Danakil’s reggae scales invade the Forum, still empty of its festival-goers. Gilles doesn’t even have the post-party feeling. However, the day before, the night dragged on with the sounds of Dionysus, Yame, Caravan Palace. A pleasure for this father of two big boys, who works among eighty volunteers.
His mission is to welcome and serve drinks to VIPs, patrons and other passing musicians, in small leather lounges or beach deckchairs, it depends. Same refrain Saturday evening, until 3 a.m., “time to clean and tidy up. It’s the hardest part, because we’re all tired.”
But sweating blood and water for the festival suits Gilles Fassot. Think about it, Juliette Armanet, Meute, Suzane, Izïa, Christine and the Queens, Eddy de Pretto and others have made the detour to the Bebop scene in recent years. “A great, diverse lineup that makes Bebop an intergenerational music festival. »
