Festival birth boosts Paléo visitor numbers

Fans film Belgian-Congolese rapper Damso on the Paléo main stage on Sunday © Keystone / Martial Trezzini

The organisers of the 46th Paléo Festival in Nyon, western Switzerland, say they are very satisfied with this year’s six-day gathering, which was attended by 250,000 people. It is one of the biggest events of its kind in Switzerland.

To be more precise, there were 250,001 visitors, director Daniel Rossellat said with a smile on Sunday, referring to a “premature and unexpected birth” at the festival campsite on Thursday night.

“We’ve been waiting for a birth for a long time,” he said, promising little Yago a lifetime subscription.

The same evening organisers experienced a scare when a festival-goer suffered fainted. “His life was in danger, but thanks to the quick intervention of the emergency services he was saved,” Rossellat said. The week was marked by no other major incidents.

“All the ingredients for a great year were there,” the delighted director and founder of the festival said. The weather played along, the audience was “enthusiastic and curious”, and the artists lived up to expectations,” he said.

250 concerts

Programme organiser Jacques Monnier was also pleased. For him, highlights among the 250 concerts included the “innovative” concert by Spanish singer Rosalia, Louise Attaque’s hits sung with the audience, the “crazy energy” of Bigflo and Oli, the “impressive” show by Shaka Ponk, the big hit of the Belleville stage dedicated to electronic music, and the “tears of emotion” of Swiss rapper KT Gorique when she left the stage.

The mix of generations at Paléo, “one of its trademarks”, worked perfectly, Monnier added.

For the next editions, Paléo, which started as a folk music gathering in 1976, will “continue to question itself” in order to improve, Rossellat said. This will also be done by reducing its environmental impact. For example, the organisers are wondering whether there should continue to be free parking.