Despite the death this summer of its founder Bernard Aubert, the famous Marseille festival intends to preserve and cultivate the “sense of celebration”. From October 5 to 8, the program will combine local and international artists, with an innovation: a completely free day. Among the guests of the 2023 edition: Tiken Jah Fakoly, Faada Freddy and Ibrahim Maalouf.
The Fiesta des Suds, an essential Marseille autumn festival, was mourned by the death of Bernard Aubert, who was both its founder (in 1992) and its soul, on August 13 at the age of 72. years. But there is no question of giving up joy. The party will continue for the 32nd edition, from October 5 to 8, with a program bringing together local and international artists and, for the first time, a completely free day.
Established for several years on the edge of the Mediterranean on the J4 esplanade, in front of the emblematic Mucem museum, the Fiesta des Suds wants “to continue what it has become”an event giving “a real sense of celebration”explained Nathalie Solia, from the festival management, at a press conference.
With like “real novelty” this year, a day of free access on Sunday October 8 from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., with entertainment and amateur concerts, batucada and choirs, bringing together school students or young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods of Marseille. But also a concert by Senegalese singer and rapper Faada Freddy, with a performance “100% organic”without instruments but with body percussion. “We want to defend a popular festival where all audiences can meet”underlines Nathalie Solia.
“Around fifteen nationalities out of around thirty groups”
As for the nocturnal and paid evenings (7 p.m. to 1 a.m. from Thursday to Saturday), Frédéric André, festival programmer, explains that he wanted “reconnect with a more international program, with around fifteen nationalities in around thirty groups”all in “giving its place to the local scene, with almost a third of local groups” (Médusa, De la Crau, Mystique, Liquid Jane…)
As for headliners, the festival will feature the Franco-Lebanese star trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf or the Ivorian reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, the Brazilian singer Flavia Coelho or the French pop of La Femme. Frédéric André wanted “artists who are generous, who have things to give, to say”seeking in particular the “mixtures of original cultures passed through the sieve of modern cultures”.
“Mixture of original cultures through the sieve of modern cultures”
This is the case, for example, of Chouk Bwa and the Angströmers, an association of a Haitian voodoo trance orchestra with a Belgian electro duo. In the same spirit, the festival invited the Kokoko collective from Kinshasa (DRCongo), discovered in 2020 in the film System K by director Renaud Barret (who had already popularized Staff Benda Bilili) and who plays wild post-punk techno on instruments made from salvaged parts. Or the duo Ladaniva and its folk music with sounds from Armenia, Reunion Island, the Balkans and the Middle East.
Mixtures which are the essence of the Fiesta, summarizes Jacques Lantelme, president of the Latinissimo association, founder of the festival, for whom “listening to other people’s music is learning to know others.”
Fiesta des Suds, from October 5 to 8, 2023 in Marseille
> See the festival program