“We could no longer afford Orelsan or M. The big international artists, I’m not even talking to you about them. » At the Art Rock festival in Saint-Brieuc, we are worried to see artistic fees exploding over the past two years. “For a headliner on our big stage, prices have been multiplied by two or three: we went from 80,000 to 200,000 euros,” notes Carol Meyer, director of the event. The maximum price that Art Rock allows itself? 100,000 euros for a music heavyweight, two per evening.
The diagnosis is the same in other Breton festivals, such as the behemoth Vieilles Charrues, which saw its programming budget increase from €1.70 million to more than €5 million in ten years. The Carhaisian event prefers to “move on, when we tell ourselves that it’s too expensive, that it’s more of a risk than an opportunity,” says Jérôme Tréhorel, its director.
Buzz and speculation
The amount of fees had experienced a form of “confectioners’ truce” in 2022, coming out of covid-19 “because there had been damage for certain festivals”, recalls Carol Meyer. But since then, a catch-up effect has occurred. The sales of physical albums at half mast, not compensated by the gains from streaming platforms and the increase in production costs (rental of tour buses, transport, ever more advanced scenographies, etc.), are brandished by those around the artists to explain the inflation of fees. Some of them, in rap in particular, have had whirlwind careers, and pay very dearly for their services, before their popularity falls. Others, with zero concerts on the clock, but authors of a buzz on social networks like TikTok, do not hesitate to claim amounts from much more renowned musicians. “It’s pure speculation,” squeaks the director of Art Rock, who also notes that the quest for parity on posters is driving up the price of female artists.
At Wart, in Morlaix (29), which produces several big names like Zaho de Sagazan or Jeanne Added, we observe that “demand is very strong. It is the artists and their management who make the choices based on this. But we maintain proximity with them and we try to be reasonable in artistic costs,” says Eddy Pierres, its director.
“Not become elitist events”
Many events, forced to be almost sold out to balance their budget, must rely on these increasingly expensive headliners. “This creates a bidding phenomenon. Festivals are shooting themselves in the foot,” warns Carol Meyer.
Some, like the Festival du Bout du Monde, nevertheless say they want to avoid entering this spiral: “We follow developments carefully, but we remain seated in our chair, being faithful to our DNA, where we favor programming authentic, diverse,” insists Guillaume Rocaboy, production manager at Quai Ouest Musiques. But, even for “Boudu”, of which “three quarters of the programming is made up of artists from the four corners of the world, very little known, this implies making choices when we see incredible prices”. The Morlaisian Wart, also organizer of the Panoramas festival, realized “that we could not keep up with the inflation of international DJ headliners. For this reason and around ten others, we began our decline, going from 12,000 to 4,000 spectators,” explains Eddy Pierres.
The surge in fees “endangers the festivals”, supports, for his part, the boss of Charrues. “People have less money than before. Artists need to realize this. All festivals have had a complicated year in 2023. »
To survive, Art Rock fears having to make “savings on free shows, which represent 40% of the programming, or on emerging and local artists”.
A good number of festivals in France are associative, and for many of them there is no question of (too much) passing on the increased costs of fees, security, food, etc. on the tickets. “Our price has only increased by two euros this year. We don’t want to become elitist events. In the rest of Europe, many festivals are for-profit businesses, where tickets are much more expensive,” observes Carol Meyer.
Cut in subsidies
To avoid the explosion of this bubble, Jérôme Tréhorel cites the example of Indochina and Zaho de Sagazan, who chose “to do accessible tours”. “This must become the norm,” he points out. Carol Meyer calls for “the benevolence of the sector for festivals which are territorial, committed projects, necessary for the emergence of new artists”. This while a new storm is emerging on the horizon, with the expected drop in public subsidies in 2025, feared by the entire French cultural sphere.
