Pantiero Festival
Cannes, France
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Summer festivals. A distant memory now, the sunburn, the mud, the dodgy burgers and expensive beer... Maybe that's an area we could take some advice on from the French, if the Pantiero festival is anything to go by. For four days in Cannes, the evenings on the beachfront are rudely disturbed by a mixture of styles: electronic, rock, indie and rap mixing it up on the one stage next to the Festival Hall more known for it's film festival than anything else. Acts included The Pharcyde, Jurassic 5, Ugly Duckling, Boom Bip, The Youngblood Brass Band, and lots of others. Past festivals have had TY, The Streets, Arrested Development, Soulwax, London Elektricity, Mr Scruff, The Cinematic Orchestra, Fila Brazillia, Femi Kuti, plus tons more interesting and varies groups. The festival is only 4 years old, but as you can see it already has an impressive track record. As the organiser says, it's a festival in the image of the town of Cannes - international and open-minded.
I had the luck to be there for the last day of the 2005 edition, where the bands playing were Ugly Duckling, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and Jurassic 5. An excellent line up that had many a funky French hip-hopper drooling, and promise from Sharon Jones of something a bit different that would keep the energy levels right up there. Interviews of each of them are here:
Ugly Duckling interview
Sharon Jones interview
Jurassic 5 interview
So back to the last night of the festival. The organisation was great - no long waits between bands, the crowd allowed in in plenty of time to avoid a scrum, and it all seemed to help the artists put on a show where they could just concentrate on having a good time while giving us a good time.
Ugly Duckling were first up - a great act to warm up the crowd, although on this summer's evening in the south of France that wasn't entirely necessary! They really know how to put on a show, building up to the ceremonial putting on of the gold chain by Young Einstein, moments of mad jumping round, culmanating in the almighty "Turn it up", always guaranteed to cause mayhem.
Like I said, Sharon Jones is a different style to the others on the bill. With her 8 piece band all suited and booted and her in a little dress, the energy of this old style funk and Rhythm n Blues got the crowd grooving and moving, even though I'm sure half of them had never listened to any of her records. The quality of the musicians was really top notch - the drummer was something else all together!
However good the first two were, they were building up for Jurassic 5, and Chali 2na, Marc 7, Akil, Zaakir and NuMark (no Cut Chemist unfortunately, who was busy recording his solo album) didn't disappoint. As promised beforehand in the interview, there are tracks from all of the J5 albums, Jayou early on causing havoc, Concrete Schoolyard coming mid-set getting everyone going again. Quality Control, Freedom, What's Golden plus some new songs that sound to be keeping up the sound and quality that we've become accustomed to. Then there are the little interludes, chatting to the audience and getting some participation going on, NuMark doing some beat juggling on a Fisher Price toy and percussion from Akil on a school desk - all elements of the show that keep the crowd dancing, laughing, cheering and excited about what's coming next.
Chali 2na was the star of the show, getting cheers every time he started to rhyme which got a bit annoying cuz you couldn't hear the beginning of any of his verses! I imagined beforehand that it would have gone to his head, that he'd keep his distance and be the star of the show, but he turned out to be an amazing guy - so down to earth and friendly, and interested in each of the fans. He even went to the merchandise stand afterwards and signed for each and every person that asked, on t-shirts, records, tickets and anything else they had handy.
And then that was it. The night was over, the crowd leaving for a stroll on the beach and a swim before going on to the afters in bars and clubs. A great experience, in a great location. Be sure to check for it in 2006.
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