In Clisson, the charms of Hellfest in search of a home port

The Figaro Nantes

Hellfest turns a new page in its grimoire. The 17^e edition of the extreme music festival ended on Sunday evening in Clisson, near Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), after four days of roars and macabre dances, electric shows and dark rituals. Monday 1^is July, the festival area was already taking on the appearance of a vast construction site on which many small hands were busy dismantling the temporary structures. Despite the decline of 280,000 visitors and the disconnection of the speakers, a little music still lingers in the atmosphere of Clisson. What if there was a Hellfest outside the festival weekend?

For several years now, the 15 hectares that each year host the festival’s diabolical and colorful Cour des Miracles have been transformed, outside the Hellfest period, into a walking area. Since 2022, visitors – and other joggers – have been able to admire a giant statue of Lemmy Kilmister, the British founder of Motörhead, who died in 2015. The 12-meter-high steel monument has become a pilgrimage site in its own way since part of the singer and guitarist’s ashes were buried there. A 26-tonne clock with guitar-shaped hands, a metal tree and various structures with a rusty aesthetic form the site’s permanent scenography. Tours have been organized since 2018 by the Syndicat Mixte du Vignoble Nantes, which brings together Clisson and 27 other municipalities southeast of Nantes. But local stakeholders do not intend to stop there.

A future cultural hub

“We’ve reached a ceiling with the festival, to the point where we’re now aiming to optimise it rather than expand it. And since our site is fixed, we’ve started to develop it.”says Éric Perrin, spokesperson for Hellfest Productions, which organizes the Clisson event. Innovate rather than expand, then. In 2024, this local headlong rush took on the glowing color of the Guardian of Darkness, the imposing animated sculpture, half demon, half scorpion – and occasionally fire-breathing – commissioned by the festival from the Compagnie des Machines in Nantes. The machine, mobile and supposed to be able to carry around ten people, should eventually benefit from its own showcase location, in the spirit of the large glass roof of the Galerie des Machines, on the Isle of Nantes.

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The construction of the lair of the Guardian of Darkness is however far from beginning. However, it is this structure, envisaged as “a Gothic machine-ship”, which should form the first stone of a real cultural – and tourist – hub that Hellfest plans to become, in its port of Clisson. A move upmarket compared to the current simple promenade area. “It’s a big deal. We want to carry out and develop a long-term regional project.”assures Éric Perrin. The festival’s spokesperson confirms some delays in the ignition of this new ambition of Hellfest, notably because “electoral deadlines” and a false jump from the Loire-Atlantique department. The organizers, however, maintain good relations with the elected officials of the Pays de la Loire, whose representatives set foot on the festival grounds this weekend – and have fond memories of the visit of the former Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, who came in 2022 to meet Guns N’Roses.

“We are still waiting to see how these discussions with the various institutions and communities will end, summarize the organizers. In any case, these are projects that we intend to carry out. However, being able to count on local funding would allow us to get them off the ground more quickly.” Around the site, other developments did not wait for Hellfest to launch its construction machines. A brewery, supported by a private player, is already under construction at the edge of the perimeter. Other developments, such as a children’s playground, have also been approved. Hell still has a bright future.