The Eurockéennes de Belfort (French pronunciation:[øʁɔkeɛndəbɛlfɔʁ]; English: Eurockeans of Belfort) is one of France's largest rockmusic festivals. The Eurockéennes, a play on words involving rock (rock music) and européennes (Europeans), is a festival based in a nature reserve beside Lac de MalsaucyBelfort.
About
History
1989 marked the first time round for the festival, when it went under the name Le Ballon - Territoire de musiques, named after the nearby Ballon d'Alsace. The festival was organised to take place on the Ballon d'Alsace, but the peninsula on the Malsaucy lake was chosen in the end, because it was easier to link by car, bus and even train. It was the brainchild of the Conseil général of the Territoire de Belfort, who wanted to dynamise their département with a big cultural event for its youths.
In 1990 the festival was renamed les Eurockéennes de Belfort.
Attendance:
10,000 in 1989
70,000 in 1993
80,000 in 2002
95,000 in 2004
100,000 in 2006
100,000 in 2008
127,000 in 2013 (on 4 days)
102,000 in 2015
130,000 in 2017
135,000 in 2018
Les Eurockéennes takes place on the peninsula of Lake Malsaucy, 10 kilometres from Belfort. A number of different stages are present – la Grande Scène, le Chapiteau, la Loggia and la Plage. Most of the time there are simultaneous concerts on different stages; altogether in 2005 there were about 70.
A campsite, 3 km from the main site, is the free and temporary home to 15000 festival-goers, with a free shuttle bus running between the campsite and the entrance to the main area.
2020 and 2021 editions and COVID-19 pandemic
It was announced on 13 April 2020 that the 2020 edition would be cancelled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Foo Fighters ("We were opening up for David Bowie..." recalled Dave Grohl. "It didn't make any sense for me: a drummer pretending to be a singer; to stand in front of so many people and try to entertain them all. Like, I'm not Freddie Mercury. And then David Bowie goes out and lifts a fucking finger and people go fucking berserk. I didn't understand it at all."[3]