Eurockeennes Enjoy A Weekend For Winners

The snap storm that took out the electricity and crashed the computer system might have raised fears of a repeat of 2001, but it was over in an hour and a record-breaking 96,000 people basked in three days of brilliant sunshine at Les Eurockeennes de Belfort.

Festival press officer Herve Casteran was delighted as 32,000 per day turned up at the beautiful peninsula that juts into Lake Malsaucy, and the Saturday night crowd was euphoric after a French victory over hot favourites Brazil in soccer’s World Cup finals.

Apart from the 10,000 who camped on site, it seems the rest of the crowd headed home via the city of Belfort and created a massive carnival as fans in gridlocked cars sounded their horns and waved their national flags from their windows.

The only way to move around Belfort in the early hours of Sunday morning was on foot.

Apart from Depeche Mode, The Strokes, Morrissey and Muse, the French footballers were undoubtedly one of the weekend’s star turns.

Relieved that lightning wasn’t going to strike twice and there would be no need to repeat the 2001 site evacuation, Casteran and the other organisers were entitled to celebrate a record-breaking ticket figure as well as the surprise soccer result.

The other acts helping to turn up the heat near Mulhouse and the country’s Swiss border June 30th to July 2nd were Arctic Monkeys, Sigur Ròs, The Sunday Drivers, Deftones, Art Brut, Coldcut, Infadels, Mogwai and Damian Marley.

– John Gammon