Marc's Public Blog - Festivals

Outside of being kind of sick last year and low energy as a result, Chateau Perché last year was quite impressive, so because my schedule allowed stopping by this year between other EU activities, I made plans to go back. This year, it was however a much smaller venue and to be honest underwhelming compared to last year. I heard unofficially that there were 3 times fewer people but the event was also over 2 weeks, so I wasn't sure if it was 3 times fewer times 2 weeks, or 6 times fewer people each of the 2 weeks. Either way it felt a lot smaller, which was not a huge deal, but one byproduct was fewer stages with fewer means for each of them.

Got lucky one night, there was dew in the air which worked great for lasers:

Music was however a problem for me, most of it I can't say I liked, which was unfortunate:

Grenier Grivois - intérieur Fast Breaks, Global Bass

Librairie du Conte - intérieur Shatta, Latin, Funk

Ruisseau des Dryades - extérieur Techno, Deep Techno, Hypnotic, Tech House

Coquin Bassin - extérieur House, Progressive, Trance

Lisière Licencieuse - extérieur Downtempo, Melodic, Psytech

Archipel de Lorelei - extérieure Ecstatic Dance, Ambient, Chill Live

This year the caslte was a bit farther away, and thankfully they had busses from Paris that got you there in a bit over 2H. Meeting in Paris:

2H later

thankfully the walk from the bus to tipis was a lot shorter

security check was super fast and mostly 'please don't bring glass bottles'

the glamping tipis were decked out

and thankfully they had a charging station that saved my life

Like last year, you could bring all the food and drinks you wanted, and they had decent options:

I did have a crepe :)

La lutinerie had interesting workshops and shade:

for 'emergency use', they had a 'love room' for couples at night ;)

Some days, because it was too hot anywhere but in the shade, I went to hide :)

I wasn't the only one to hide :)

Later in the afternoon, people got into their costumes (or changed) and went from the campsite to the castle:

it was between warm and hot, plenty of water thankfully

A bit before sunset, I went to change too:

5 Stages, but they were not super fun during the day when it was hot:

that was funny though :)

Some vendors and displays:

Got better at night of course (except for the music that was often close to unbearable at almost all stages for me):

this stage really looked nice, but the music...

The people

One nice thing was all the nice costumes and how seriously people are taking the costume themes:

Jour 1, Hiver - La Danse du Marais Flamboyant (Transparence - Flamme - Brumer)

Jour 2, Printemps - La Parade des Nymphes Améthystines (Floral - Camaïeu Lila - Noble)

Jour 3, Été - Les Noces d'Ecailles et d'Ecume (Océan - Parures Argent - Chanson de Geste)

Jour 4, Automne - Le Banquet des Coeurs Effeuillés (Nudité - Abondance - Voiles)

This is what saved the festival for me, the people were awesome. Yes, they're my countrymen and all, but they just had great party spirit and put a lot of effort into costumes and lights, which I not only very much appreciate, but deserves extra credit when power sources to charge batteries, were limited:

the french equivalent of insomniac ground control, nice!

Conclusions

What fell short:

I missed the bigger forest where you could get lost, and end up in a stream if you were not careful. You could still can of venture frmo light to light, but given the small size, it was easy not to get lost and didn't have the same feel as last year

Stages last year had better quality of DJs with live performances like live Drum and Bass, Face 2 Face Vynil sets, and more

Last year had more psytrance and music that I enjoyed compared to this year

It's true that I know France is not known for its great trance and psytrance, but I was hoping for more than all this experimental stuff that was often so far out that I had to get friends help me to name it.

the glamping tipis were a lifesaver for me since I can't travel with camping gear, but they really could have used some kind of windows you could unzip at the top to get air in. They got uncomfortably warm during the day and the zippers are the bottom were kind of useless for airflow

I can't say it fell short, but I have to note that cell coverage was abysmal, which was a problem when you had to retrieve a ticket to get back on the bus if you didn't save it, or you tried to order a new bus to get home at a different time. They could have offered a few wifi access points linked to starlink or whatnot.

What I enjoyed:

I loved the people's party mood, costumes and lights.

Security was just the very basic necessary, you were allowed to bring food and drinks anywhere even if they had some for sale

No "cashless wristband" bullshit, you could pay with credit cards and phones, as it should be

price was pretty reasonable considering (around 250E for 5 days/4 nights)

transport in and out was good if you took the shuttles, no ridiculous waits like boom the last day

la lutinerie was awesome, the workshops they offered were unique and honestly really added to the festival (and this year they did things better by allowing signups online to avoid needless long lines)

Would I go back?
At this point, the reality is 'unlikely'. I don't get to go to a festival and say 'your music sucks', it's for me to enjoy it or find another festival with music that is more fun to me, and given the smaller footprint, and smaller amount of stages of the regular festival compared to the 10 year anniversary, it left me with fewer chances to find music that was enjoyable for me.
If I can get the dates to align, I may go back to Hadra, as I can work with psytrance more easily ;)

enough busses and it was easy enough to stand by on an earlier bus

Links

Picture Gallery

Instagram Stories

Video Summary of all 4 days

And short video bits that were taken of me: