• After two editions canceled due to Covid-19, the Déferlantes are back from Thursday to Sunday, in a new setting, in Céret, in the Pyrénées-Orientales.

  • This year again, the festival has a crazy line-up: Black Eyed Peas, Ofenbach, Sean Paul, Angèle, Clara Luciani, Kungs, DJ Snake or Muse.

  • But how does the festival attract so many stars?

    With the “under”, of course, notes its programmer, David Garcia, but also thanks to its reputation.

Météo-France announces a beautiful sun and more than 30 degrees, until Sunday July 10, in Céret (Pyrénées-Orientales).

But watch out, it's going to rain stars.

For their big comeback, after two canceled editions, in 2020 and 2021, because of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Déferlantes are displaying a crazy program.

In its new setting at the Château d'Aubiry, surrounded by vineyards and cherry trees, the Catalan festival will notably host, until Sunday, Black Eyed Peas, Cali, Juliette Armanet, Ofenbach, PNL, Simple Minds, Sum 41, Feder, M, Martin Garrix, Orelsan, Sean Paul, Angèle, Clara Luciani, Kungs, Vianney, DJ Snake, Hoshi, and Muse.

Close to Spain and Portugal

If the poster is particularly prestigious this year, the event has long been the meeting place for bigwigs.

Since its creation in 2007, Les Déferlantes spectators have applauded Elton John, Joe Cocker, Mika, Sting, Noel and Liam Gallagher (not together, unfortunately), Ben Harper, Lily Allen, IAM, Lenny Kravitz, Carlos Santana, The Offspring , Iggy Pop, Manu Chao, NTM, or Martin Solveig.

But how do Les Déferlantes manage to convince so many stars?

“Of course, there are the money!

“, does not hide David Garcia, the programmer of the Catalan festival.

But not only.

To have the opportunity to welcome stars on its stages, the event must fit easily into their “routing”;

that is to say the path they take to go from one concert to another, often on board large buses.

That's a bit of luck.

But the advantage of the Pyrénées-Orientales is that it is well placed, on the border with Spain, and not far from Portugal either.

“When artists go to Spain, to Mad Cool [in Madrid] or to Portugal, to Nos Alive [in Lisbon], we are in the “routing””, continues the founder of Les Déferlantes de Céret.

Agents who have already come "know where they are setting foot"

But the real painstaking work, which the Déferlantes team carries out all year round, is the permanent dialogue with the agents of the stars.

“I've been doing festivals for 30 years, they know us today, notes the founder of the event.

Emma Banks, for example, the agent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Katy Perry or Muse.

She has already come to the festival with Arcade Fire [in 2011].

She knows us a little, she sees the financial capacity, and the evolution of our festival.

“The agents who have already come “know where they are setting foot”, continues David Garcia.

The artists, too, discuss it, "of course", among themselves.

And those who have already come praise the merits of the event.

And want to come back.

Like Iggy Pop or Lenny Kravitz.

“Les Déferlantes is considered the most beautiful festival in France, we are surrounded by vineyards, in the mountains.

There is a castle, the sun... It brings an additional cachet, explains the programmer from Perpignan.

And then there is the gastronomy!

When the artists come to us, the best sommeliers give them wine tastings.

And in the canteen, it's 100% short circuit products.

A cargolade, grilled snails with herbs, a typical local dish, in the middle of the vines, is always better than a triangle sandwich, backstage at a Zénith.

All these ingredients have allowed the Déferlantes team to boost the number of stars per evening this year.

Before the Covid-19 parenthesis, the festival hosted “one or two headliners, and several “middle”, notes David Garcia.

From now on, there are almost only headliners.

We are really, today, on a program equivalent to the biggest European festivals.

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