Les Louanges, Cœur de Pirate, Loud, Robert Charlebois, Lisa LeBlanc and Soolking, among many others, feature on the poster for the outdoor shows at the 34th Francos de Montréal, unveiled on Wednesday. Festival-goers will once again have access to around a hundred free shows from June 9th to 17th this year.
Posted at 5:30 p.m.
“We don’t have the means for an Osheaga, a big American or French festival, but we do have the means to bring Montrealers and tourists closer to these sounds that most people don’t know yet.” We’re used to that,” says Maurin Auxéméry , program director of the festival, whom we met this week. “And at the same time we are a playground for established artists who want to get in touch with their audience and rediscover it. »
The program for the next Francos is varied. As it has long been proud of, the festival offers the public the opportunity to make musical discoveries but also to find their favorite artists on the open-air stages. All for free (in addition to the thirty indoor paid shows already announced).
PHOTO MORGANE CHOCQUER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
FouKi will be at the Francos launch event on June 9th.
The largest of these stages, the Place des Festivals, will feature big names from all generations. The opening event on Friday June 9th was entrusted to FouKi. The next day, Roxanne Bruneau will take the stage. On the following nights it’s the turn of Cœur de Pirate, then Lisa LeBlanc and Loud.
Algerian sensation Soolking will perform on the main stage on June 15th. Les Louanges will present its Crash show the following day. Finally, the great Robert Charlebois will close the celebrations on the following Saturday.
The Francos organization attaches great importance to offering festival visitors a wide range of activities, says Maurin Auxéméry. Whether through the presentation of musical genres, gender parity or cultural representation, the program makers try to make the festival a place for all encounters.
“It happens on stage, but also in front of the stage,” explains the organization’s new big boss. With a Soolking, for example, many media will wonder what this guy is doing on the big Francos stage. But we will bring the entire Algerian community to the site. And that’s important, because these are also people from the Montreal community. »
It is the responsibility of festivals to be inclusive organisations. Because we are also showpieces. If we stay monochrome, we won’t change anything.
Maurin Auxéméry, Francos program director
Discoveries and rising stars
This showcase will also serve young artists who are beginning to show their color while giving a special place to the burgeoning local scene. Particularly celebratory will be Émile Bourgeault, Velours Velours, Fredz, Naomi, Parazar, vanilla, Super Plage and Kanen.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
good kid
In between we find a variety of artists that are popular with the public and manage to bring their loyal audience with them and captivate passers-by. On the Loto Québec stage we expect concerts by Dumas, Bon Enfant, Ariane Roy, Choses Sauvages, Jay Scøtt, Rosie Valland and L’Isle, among others.
Hip-hop will again have a good spot this year: alongside headliners FouKi, Loud and Soolking, Manu Militari, Rymz, Shreez, LaF, Eman, Prince Waly, Greg Beaudin, Ya Cetidon and Rowjay are expected to perform late into the night as part of Urban Nights.
Also present are the rapper BRÖ and the singer-songwriter Pierre de Maere, European artists on the rise. “We’re still a little obsessed with discovering the next Christine and the Queens, the next Damso,” notes Maurin Auxéméry.
And it is certain that among all the artists that we have this year, as in previous years, there are people who will become great artists.
Maurin Auxemery
As an example, he cites Zaho de Sagazan, a French singer-songwriter who is “making everything explode” at home and will perform on the Discovery stage on Wednesday 14th. On the rap side, BEN plg or BB Jacques are also among the artists to follow closely and whose recent albums are of high caliber, says Maurin Auxéméry.
“With artists like you, we want to position ourselves as a talent scout to help push this emerging world forward. »