Founded in 1989, Les Francofolies is a festival of French-language music that lasts for over a week in the city of Montreal. The 20th edition of the festival in 2008 promises to deliver more of the same spectacle that crowds have associated with the event for the past 2 decades. There will be well over 50 indoor shows at venues across the city such as Metropolis, the Air Transat Pavilion and Club Soda. In addition, the festival also makes excellent use of Montreal street closings and parks to bring 178 free outdoor shows to the city. Originally, the festival had a variety of dates where it took place, sometimes as late as the Fall season, but it has now been firmly established as one of the pillars of the Montreal summer festival season, stretching from the end of July to the beginning of August.
A diverse selection of music
Les Francofolies does not discriminate when it comes to choosing which artists and genres will be represented at the festival. There are 13 different countries represented in total, each of them sending groups and performers who come from the international Francophone community. Over 70 of these artists will be performing for the first time in Quebec, and the festival has a reputation of being able to launch the careers of previously unknown musicians. An excellent example is Jean Leloup, who was introduced to a mass audience at the inaugural event in 1989 and went on to become one of the most popular acts that Quebec has ever seen. Close to 1 million people attend Les Francofolies, and as a result, it can be an important learning experience for performers who are just beginning to crack the international market.
A history of excellent performances
Some of the biggest names in the world of Francophone music have performed at the festival. MC Solaar and Angelique Kidjo represented a new wave of entertainment coming from across the Atlantic in 1992. That year also saw attendance at the festival rise above 50 000 people for the first time. In 1994, Eric Lapointe, now a huge star on the Quebec rock scene, made one of his first impacts on the Francofolies crowd. He was joined in the popular music pantheon a couple of years later in 1996 by Noir Silence and the more underground sounds of Groovy Aardvark.
In the 2000’s, Les Francofolies began to explore an even wider variety of music. Television deals gave organizers a larger budget with which to work, and alongside stalwarts like Kevin Parent and Bruno Pelletier there were more DJ events, jazz, and electronic musicians. The festival also began to showcase and honor francophone authors.
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