At the Clisson festival, political messages often directed against the extreme right, launched from the stage, are mixed in with the festivities, two days before the first round of the legislative elections.
Before hitting the road to Hellfest and donning his two-cornered Viking hat, Jean-Philippe Guillaud took care to fill out a power of attorney. Metalhead “always”voter “from the left”he will follow the result of the legislative elections in full concert.
In his «microcosme musical»is vote “rather left” but he does not prefer to draw generalities. “Metal brings people together because it thinks outside the box. It’s a world of the margins, outside the norm, which brings together people of different political colors”, says this 53-year-old real estate agent, gray beard tied with an elastic band. Faithful to the Clisson metal festival (Loire-Atlantique) for 10 years, rock lover “always”he notes that “many groups” of this musical universe are “engaged”evoking in their pieces “sharing, distribution, questions about society, about individualism”. “Themes that are rather left-wing”he notes.
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On stage this year, there will be Lofofora on Saturday, who sings in a recent song that “Racism and pesticides, that’s what’s poisoning” and that he would like “cutting privileges and borders with a machete”. Scheduled several times at Hellfest, the group Gojira has combined musical success and deep commitment to the ecological cause for more than 20 years.
Backwards from “certain preconceived ideas” which would anchor metal on the side of the right and the extreme right, the studies of the anthropologist Corentin Charbonnier reveal among metalheads a rather marked political tendency to the left. According to his work, 3% of festival-goers at Hellfest and Motocultor in Carhaix in Finistère voted for the far right in 2019 while 40% of them declared that they voted for the left or the far left.
“Rock annoys the RN”
Among the Hellfest audience, Corentin Charbonnier notes a preponderance of executives, which he links to the price of passes, sold this year at 329 euros for four days. Metal, on the other hand, “transcends social classes”. “A few years ago, the unions came to hand out leaflets at Hellfest, it’s no coincidence”he says.
A few days before the legislative elections, 230 artists, more than 70 labels and several dozen media and organizations from the French scene signed a column entitled “Rock annoys the RN”, calling for “to block an ideology that goes against everything (they defend)”. The appeal was signed by the federation of metal music. At Hellfest, wearing a cap with a logo and the festival logo in earrings, Julie Estephe explains that she signed a power of attorney before leaving because “we can do worse than the current situation”. “And as a woman, certain rights remain precarious”she slips. “Metal has messages to convey and the public is there. Fascists express themselves less there”notes this festival-goer.
Committed speeches behind the cries
If she comes across concerts “fascists or polemicists”Julie Estephe, 36, avoids them. She cites as an example that of the Russian group Slaughter to Prevail, scheduled for Thursday, whose singer was suspected of neo-Nazi sympathies. Last year, a controversy arose from the programming of artists prosecuted on the grounds of domestic violence, such as Johnny Depp, guitarist of the Hollywood Vampires, or Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe, convicted in 1998 for domestic violence against his ex-wife Pamela Anderson. Which did not prevent the festival from giving these artists a standing ovation on stage.
With a beer cup in hand, Sullivan Bretin explains that he will vote by proxy on Sunday to make “front against the RN”. The 23-year-old young man finds “interesting that the groups are taking a stand”: “It can make you think, provoke discussions.” Sitting in the grass, t-shirt with logo “Hellfest 2022”Christophe Gras, 44, believes for his part that“no candidate stands out”. In concert, he notes that the slogans shouted from the stage are “most often anti-RN”. When you don’t know metal, “It can seem like the singers are screaming”says Jean-Philippe Guillaud. “But behind it there is a discourse. An often committed discourse.”
