Helene Rietsch
Volunteers around the MNOP Circus poster, the main focus of the event, scheduled for Saturday July 20.
In his suitcases, jazz, traditional blues to funk, soul, rock and rhythm’n’blues, this bubbling music born in the cultural melting pot of New Orleans, a mixture of African, Caribbean and European cultures.
If the MNOP festival were an ear, it would be more precisely “the stirrup, you know, this enormous sound transmitter, capable of making the eardrums vibrate”, promises Stéphane Colin, volunteer programmer. On the menu, highlights and meetings along the castles or bandstands, sometimes at the water’s edge.
Novelty
For its MNOP Circus, a major annual focus since 2017 that welcomes between 1,500 and 2,000 people in Boulazac, on the Lamoura plain, the event promises “a great journey” on Saturday, July 20. It will begin with Malian bluesman Boubacar Traoré, accompanied by harmonica player Vincent Bucher. And will continue with Haitian singer Moonlight Benjamin, Electrianz feat Black Indians and the soul group Tikis.
New, Friday July 19, Niversac station (still in Boulazac-Isle-Manoire) will host its first Groove, a mini-festival of amplified music within the event, dedicated to youth. “We intend to heat up your locomotives with a hot program,” announce the organizers.
The evening will begin with four bands (Decheman & Gardener, Gerry Bright and The Stokers, King Salami & The Cumberland Three and Principles of Joy), followed by an after DJ including Tanguy Hey Mars, Belle de Jour, Mike Turner and Rave de Cristal . The evening costs 15 euros, free up to 16 years old.
Daryl Sweeney
American singer Angie Wells, on a week-long French tour, will be in Dordogne on Sunday July 7, at the Château de Jumilhac, then Monday July 8, in Sainte-Marie-de-Chignac.
A big feature, and not the least important, is that the majority of concerts will be free, with the exception of the two main evenings. Périgueux will also host three free concerts: The Viper Club feat Tcha Limberger, Monday July 15 at Château Barrière; Little Limmie and Lucky Pepper, Monday July 22, Place de l’Église Saint-Georges, and finally, Wednesday July 24, the Alabama Mike concert, near Saint-Front Cathedral.
For each of the concerts, scheduled around Périgueux and as far as Montignac-Lascaux, the neighborhood committees are often at the helm in terms of organization. “Always with this idea of synergizing places full of history, often castles, with the history of New Orleans. In fraternity and friendship,” says Jacques Servia, also a volunteer on many fronts.
Sainte-Marie-de-Chignac, for example, has hosted the MNOP festival for seven years. “A chance to bring culture to a rural area,” says its deputy mayor, Bernadette Salinier. The town will welcome, on Monday, July 8 (like Jumilhac the city), the American singer Angie Wells, winner of many competitions.
