Between a gastronomic fair and a trade fair, the Alsace Wine Fair is above all festive, and would not have become what it is without Roger Stark, originally from Huningue, better known since then as Johnny Stark.
Win ùn Gsàng. The Colmar Wine Fair would not be what it has become without its music festival. Which didn’t exist at the beginning. The stars were… Oh, yes, a few local folk groups played in downtown Colmar to entertain wine lovers or customers. You have to imagine something much smaller, a few trestles behind the old hospital, Place du 2 February. Ah, there are always nostalgic people. Then the stage will be moved to the edge of Rue de la Montagne Verte, complete with a few barracks serving as dressing rooms. Guinguette and stall atmosphere, a little rudimentary but comfortable. The “Wine Hall” (the current covered market) was the essential place where people drank, tasted and danced. But it all lacked a bit of glitter.
Obviously, we changed dimension when in 1957, a Colmar cabaret responsible for entertaining the evenings entrusted the musical programming to Roger Stark, 35 years old at the time, originally from Huningue. The Alsatian with the cigar and sideburns had learned American show biz and intended to import it to France. He did not call himself an impresario, but a manager of big stars (he was among others the discoverer of Mireille Matthieu, who dedicated a song to him.
Roger Stark, who we now call Johnny Stark, has traveled a lot, he dreams of a much more modern show. Colmar is ideal for him. Well established in the community, he brought international stars to Colmar and truly founded the music festival. In 1958, the first program brought together Dalida with this recently released title, Jean Yanne, SIM, and even Luis Mariano. Johnny Stark has achieved a masterstroke: the Alsace Wine Fair festival is part of history. Quickly followed by a very young Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, Annie Cordy, Juliette Gréco, Georges Guétary, Claude François, Tina Turner, Jacques Brel, Sacha Distel, Ray Charles… Mr. Wolff. Johnny Stark and his impressive address book have placed Colmar on the summer festival map.
Johnny Stark’s Wikipedia page.
Mireille Mathieu The American (1989)
Dalida – Child (1957)
This series was produced in partnership with theNational Audiovisual Institute.
The Alsace Wine Fair website.
Thanks to the France Bleu Alsace/Elsass technical team for their involvement.
