detailed review of the 2022 novelties with the festival director Marie Sabot

The eco-responsible Parisian festival We Love Green, which could not take place like so many others for two years, is back on the lawn of the Bois de Vincennes for the Pentecost weekend on June 2, 4 and 5, 2022, with increased energy and a host of new ideas matured during the long months of the pandemic.

If the event is above all musical, with a gaggle of headliners and exclusives including Gorillaz, Angèle, Jorja Smith, PNL, Phoenix, Laylow, Juliette Armanet, Disclosure or SCH, it expands its reach this year by welcoming the new generation of stand-up, dance and chefs. Review of details of all the novelties of this edition which expects 100,000 people, with Marie Sabot, co-director and founder of We Love Green.

A completely redesigned site

This year, those who know the site of the festival will be a little turned upside down, because the circulation and the stages have been completely redesigned. “We changed the whole festival and almost all the stages, including their orientation“, teaches us Marie Sabot. “We moved the LaLaland dedicated to the dance floor, La Forêt becomes a place in its own right and we provided the Think Tank stage with a roof.”

“We have also created a closed marquee for the Clairière stage, which provides optimal light and video quality. As a result, we will have a better experience by going to see Disclosure, Caribou, Bicep or even Laylow who comes with the same show as at Bercy. The marquee being closed, it is possible that in case of large crowds not everyone can enter. But it still has a capacity of 15,000 people, that is to say almost like a Bercy.“

An additional opening night on Thursday

The 2022 edition of We Love Green begins with a preview evening on Thursday evening, before the two days of music scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. “This first evening, the festival will only be half open, with a reduced gauge“, specifies Marie Sabot. “It’s something we’ve never done. The idea is to test a pilot for next year, with the idea of ​​offering three days Friday, Saturday, Sunday in 2023.“

On the menu Thursday evening: Gorillaz, the group of Damon Albarn, the queen of new soul Jorja Smith, the superstar of Latin pop Nathy Peluso and the Berlin electronic trio Moderat. “In fact, the Gorillaz, which were scheduled from 2020 (it is therefore a report editor’s note), contacted us saying: we are available on Thursday, we want to come, what do we do?“, recalls Marie Sabot. “There, we found ourselves faced with a difficult question and we decided to open the festival with a set around them.”

In addition, the young guard of French rap, made up of Chanceko (7 p.m.), La Fève (8:30 p.m.) and 1PLIKE140 (10:15 p.m.) will be honored this same Thursday evening on the LaLaland stage, usually devoted to the dance floor. “It might be boiling hot“, predicts Marie Sabot. As for the rapper Ziak, he will open the La Clairière stage at 7:45 p.m., before Jorja Smith and Moderat.

Stand-up with Fary and the Madame Sarfaty comedy club

We Love Green is adding a new string to its bow this year: humour! Fary opens the ball with a new stage dedicated to stand-up, “a specific room, a kind of small, quite intimate club” from the evening of Thursday. The “dandy of humor“, who has just released an EP, Stand-up killed me, in which he also shows off his singing skills, should focus on humor that evening.

He will indeed present his new show twice in a row. love me if you can in exclusive preview (at 7:30 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. – Please note, by reservation), several weeks before unveiling it in a Parisian room at the start of the school year. And that’s not all. During the weekend, Fary will return with his entire team to Madame Sarfati, the Parisian comedy club he initiated, to entertain festival-goers every evening. “Saturday and Sunday, for an hour, an hour and a half, the whole new generation who will have written things especially for the festival will come to show their talent.“.

Dance with choreographer Léo Walk and his company La Marche Bleue

The other new discipline offered for the first time at the festival is dance, currently in turmoil in France. The young dancer and choreographer Léo Walk, 27, comes to present Saturday (6:45 p.m.) with the nine dancers of his company La Marche Bleue a 40-minute version of his ballet first wrinkle, an acclaimed show when it has been shown (due to the pandemic) in recent months, on tour but also from the Olympia to the Théâtre du Châtelet. “We put them on the dancefloor of LaLaland, that is to say a dancing project on a dancing space. The soundtrack of the show, very electro, coupled with the super beefy sound system of this stage, means that festival-goers may start dancing in unison with the troupe.“, hopes Marie Sabot.

Leo Walk, who also choreographed Laylow’s show and will be performing with him the same day at the festival, sees this proposal as “a challenge“It is indeed difficult to capture the attention of an audience that has come mainly for the concerts.”I created a new painting for the occasion and I removed what was less dynamic in the choreography“, he explains to us. “Since people won’t be posed in a seat but standing with a beer in hand, the aim is more to stimulate them. So I condensed what he was more energetic while keeping a few slices of calm so that there was a blend of the two energies.”

We believe a lot in this unprecedented encounter. Whatever, “so many exciting things are happening in dance right now that we have to make room for it every year from now on. We are working on it“, assures the director of We Love Green.

The Head Lab and End of Service talks

For this edition of the revival, We Love Green is making even more room for the pleasures of the taste buds and is working twice as hard by inaugurating Le Chef Lab. “It is a new catering offer around four chefs and chefs led by Adrien Cachot, former Top Chef who made such overwhelming cuisine when he was in residence at Le Perchoir this winter in Ménilmontant “, exposes Marie Sabot. Around him: Alessandra Montagne and her militant Brazilian-inspired cuisine, the traveling Franco-Iranian chef Minou Sabahi and the revelation Valentin Raffali from the Livingston in Marseille.

These four sizes of stoves will have on site “a real equipped kitchen and a dedicated space, a very beautiful covered and comfortable terrace with tables laid out like a huge banquet where festival-goers can taste their gourmet cuisine with a menu at 15 euros“, specifies the director of We Love Green. Cherry on the menu: a small stage erected in the middle of this space, within sight and ear of the guests, will offer “talks” called End of Service. “Chefs will come to talk about their eco-responsible way of cooking, winegrowers and farmers about their work, and Ecotable representatives will explain what fair trade cuisine is.”

But it will still be possible to snack on creative and smart street-food on the go, by going to the “food court” which remains in place with its 50 handpicked restaurant stands – “We had 126 applications this year and the jury led by Alexandre Gauthier from La Grenouillère selected 50.“.”They make what is called camping gastronomy, delicious take-out, but taking care to make as little waste as possible. Some take the opportunity to test ideas, try experiments that they would not dare in their restaurants and it is an opportunity for chefs to get their teams out of the kitchens, to offer them a little fun.“, exposes Marie Sabot. “So far, at some festivals, it’s always been the same not very sought-after fries stalls. Maybe this inventive food pop culture will spread to other French festivals.“, she hopes. It is true that we take a liking to it…

The We Love Green 2022 festival takes place on June 2, 4 and 5 in the Bois de Vincennes
Consult the program here