Everything happened really fast. Last year, they took us by surprise by creating a festival from A to Z in the space of six months. This year, they surprised us by expanding with the installation of a second stage and increasing the audience reception by almost half. “We didn’t know anything at all fifteen months ago. As I often say, there will be a before and an after this edition,” recalled Benjamin Bozec, the co-president of L’Irréducible festival, in Quimper, who is now knocking on the door of “the big leagues”.
As the end of the second edition of the festival set up on the Kerourien plain, from June 28 to 30, approached, the organizers wore a huge smile even “if my paws hurt,” confided Mathieu Gourmelen, the president. . And they had reason to be happy. “We will arrive between 13,000 and 13,500 festival-goers over the three days,” continued Benjamin Bozec. That is more than 4,000 additional tickets compared to 2023.
A family and respectful audience
“The feedback is enormous,” added Mathieu Gourmelen after three days of furious madness. “We passed a gap. We have moved up a level,” he added. But behind this self-satisfaction lies a truth. It was enough to talk with the festival-goers present on the site to realize it: “a fluid organization”, “simple access” and “volunteers who take care of us”.
There was virtually no waiting time to recharge your wristband at the bank or to eat and drink in the Tavern, the big new feature of the 2024 edition. And what about the public? Families and friends. Festival-goers who were “very clean. Very respectful. We hardly had to do any cleaning. It’s really great,” said one of the 400 or so volunteers.
Great surprises and the Cali show
As for the musical programming, on both stages, we were not surprised by the overflowing energy of Elmer Food Beat, Trois Fromages, Red Cardell, Lodgerz or Komodrag & The Mounodor. On the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised by great discoveries like the Bigoudens of Spreaders, the rockers of Onde de Shock and by the magnificent stage performance of Hart & Dolls, with the drag queen Britany Hart, during the DJ Kutt concert.
A show that will remain as a highlight of this second edition. Just like the concert by Soldat Louis and the moving performance of the young children of Moulin-Vert on the big stage with Cali. The latter, who was celebrating his 56th birthday in Quimper, probably offered the craziest show of the three days of the festival, spending long moments among the festival-goers.
Small downside. If the new Chap’Electro was a great success for lovers of electronic music, some festival-goers (and artists) slightly deplored a certain cacophony on the site during the Friday evening, especially towards the end and the Cali concert. But, frankly, nothing too bad, the problem having been quickly resolved by the organizers who are already working on the third edition.
Make way for the 2025 edition
“We are eternally dissatisfied. There are plenty of areas for improvement,” continued Mathieu Gourmelen, recalling that the festival’s board of directors would soon expand. “We will continue to professionalize as much as possible,” added Benjamin Bozec. And by “professionalizing”, they above all mean “improving the festival-goer experience. We want L’Irréducible to be a unifying event around culture,” continued the organizers, already indicating that Jahiner and the Eiffel group will be part of the 2025 program on a site which will be further redesigned somewhat, notably on the decoration side. “We want this to become a Gallic village,” they announce. The final word ? It’s simple: “Thank you.”
