Solidays! Celebrate!

Will Hutchins writing for I V Y paris

Solidays are coming to Paris! The festival that battles against AIDS through a celebration of life and great music will be setting up camp at the Hippodrome in Longchamp over the last weekend of June.  

It’s taking place the same weekend as Glastonbury but if you’re not crossing the sleeve to attend the world’s greatest music festival in rural south west England then this will be a very entertaining and worthy alternative.

In fact, a few of the harder working bands on the Glasto lineup will venture to Paris to entertain the continental crowd as well.

Bands such as The Ting Tings, The Virgins, Mali’s terrific Amadou et Mariam, the unmissable Metronomy and the always crowd pleasing Friendly Fires who will undoubtedly send the crowd into indie dance ecstasy when they launch into their already-a-classic love song to the republic’s capital ‘ Paris’.

Manu Chao will be there doing his multi-lingual, multi-genre thing and maybe, as a collaborator of Amadou et Mariam, will team up on stage with everyone’s favourite blind husband and wife duo. That’s the type of joyous musical surprise that festivals were created for.

Hockey one of the leading lights of post MGMT bands from the US are playing, so are England’s Magistrates who sound like Keane playing Prince covers. French highlights will mostly come from either the world of electro, like Yuksek, Surkin, or ‘are they, aren’t they’ mystique cloaked homme/femme duos. Step forward The Dø and John and Jehn. 

With a 3 day pass at a measly 45 euros, this is an incredibly good value for money festival for an incredibly good cause. 

Full list of artists include:

Groundation, The Ting Tings, Manu Chao, Digitalism, Late of the Pier, Girl Talk, Friendly Fires, Surkin, Amadou & Mariam, Alela Diane, Bénabar, The Virgins, Metronomy, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, Alborosie, The Dø, Yuksek, Syd Matters, autoKratz, Sinsemilia, Che Sudaka, Keziah Jones, Cocoon, Poni Hoax, Debout Sur Le Zinc, La Grande Sophie, Tony Allen, NTM, La Phaze, Oxmo Puccino, Les Wampas, Puppetmastaz, Piers Faccini, DJ Zebra, Sebastian Sturm, Miss Platnum, Naive New Beaters, Stuck in the Sound, Sefyu, hockey, Beat Assailant, Creature, South Central, Lexicon, Caravan Palace, Stephanie McKay, Magistrates, John & Jehn, Mouss et Hakim, Hugh Coltman, Sporto Kantès, La Casa, Les Blérots de R.A.V.E.L, Moonraisers, Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band, Yodelice, Neïmo, BeardyMan, IZIA and Pep’s