MIDEM Gets A Festival

French promoter Jules Frutos is working with MIDEM to provide the annual gathering with its own festival.

The attendance at major conferences such as MIDEM and Germany’s Popkomm have been decimated by the shrinking of the recorded music business. Both have looked for new ways to attract new delegates.

“Live and recorded music must move forward together using new models,” Frutos said in a statement.

Frutos, a co-director of Paris-based Alias Productions, is behind the country’s Les inRocKs Black XS and Musilac festivals. His company also promotes shows for international acts including Adele, Gossip, Jamiroquai and Muse.

The details of the Cannes festival that have been made public indicate it will consist of three major concerts in a so-far unnamed venue. The lineup will include international headliners as well as up-and-coming talent.

Bruno Crolot, director of music markets at Reed MIDEM, says the festival will be a key part of the live music programme at the annual Cannes gathering.

“Our commitment to delivering a premium concert experience is underlined by our partnership with Alias, which has a proven track record of producing superb events and shares our artistic aspirations for the MIDEM Festival,” he said.
“It fits perfectly with the new MIDEM that we are putting together for 2012 and we are very lucky to have the enthusiastic support of the city of Cannes.”

Alongside the MIDEM Festival will be a series of smaller concerts called “MIDEM Off,” an event that appears loosely based on Groningen’s Eurosonic model or Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival.

MIDEM Off will bring music to the heart of Cannes by making use of a dozen venues close to its centre to showcase a wide range of new talent.

Next year’s MIDEM is at Cannes’ Palais Des Festivals Jan. 28-31.