What kind of town with a huge electronic festival doesn't even have buses on Fridays? After taking the train from Aix-en-Provence to Avignon and then the bus from Avignon to Carpentras, Laurent and I needed to go 7 km into the countryside to the closest camping who accepted people for less than a week (Camping du Brégoux) in Aubignan. We took our tent, our bags and our motivation to walk these 7 km, guided by our phones which couldn't find a fast connection. Now don't get me wrong, although we had to walk under a burning sun at noon, we were able to discover the landscape around the Mont Ventoux, reviving ourselves from time to time with our Monster Rehab (no advertisement intended, but it's a pretty refreshing energy drink).
We arrived in the camping, exhausted and sweaty, but finally able to lay in our tent. Oh no wait, we needed to put it up first... After struggling for half an our with the rocky Provence ground, we managed to settle down and only got the time to call a cab to go straight back to Carpentras as the festival was starting soon and we still needed to eat. After all this trouble the only thought keeping us going was the amazing concerts we were about to experience during the next two nights.
The Kolorz Festival. Second in a series of three festivals in the South of France, after Nice and before Antibes. And only by looking at the price and programmation could you understand such a lack of organisation in terms of transport and camping grounds. 48€ for 16 hours of concerts over two days with Paul Kalkbrenner, Foreign Beggars, Dirtyphonics, Joris Delacroix, A-trak, and more (unfortunately Kavinsky was cancelled).
Probably the best festival I have ever experienced. You start the evening by entering in the Hotel de Dieu in Carpentras, a magnificent building with an interior plaza, where the concerts took place. With a maximum capacity of 3000 people, the festival was not crowdy but there was an amazing atmosphere. At 6PM, only a few purists are here to discover the less famous names such as Reflex or Autoreverse. With only a hundred people there maximum, the DJs set the pace for the rest of the evening, by introducing a genre (more Minimal and Techno on the first night, more Dubstep on the second day). These DJs were all very good, excpet maybe for the group Reflex (2nd day) which played uninteresting music, looking more like yound David Guettas, mixing with their hands up in the air.
First Day:
We moved to the front line as more and more experienced DJs started their sets. As the crowd got thicker, Greg Delon started his set. Although his live performance is a bit boring as he doesn't seem very thrilled to be here (not much smiling or expression on his face), his songs were still very good and very well mixed. I could even add that he was very unpredictable in his rhythms, a quality I enjoy discovering as it is very surprising.
Popping his head from time to time, and even replacing Greg Delon for a few minutes, his good friend Joris Delacroix really got the crowd ready to party. His set was excellent as his performance is more jovial and his songs are just plain composition genius.
Then we discovered a new name which I really enjoyed: Julian Jeweil. This local DJ presented a very good Minimal set. I recommend you listen to his work.
Then came the rage. Worakls along with his amusing roadies (all with different t-shirts such as : "Last night Worakls saved my life") changed the pace and delivered a fast and bassy set which warmed everyone up for what was about to come.
And here it is... The end of our sanity, and the beginning of a trance. After a long (too long?) wait after Worakls, our favorite German appeared. Paul K, with his usual football shirt (this time the number 10 of the french team!), gradually took us to another world with his legendary Minimal samples. What a night.
We had the chance of being picked up for free by our favorite taxi driver to go back home and therefore avoiding the 7km back to the tent by foot. Thank you once again to the guys who were kind enough to offer us this ride.
Second Day:
We slept like babies on our 1cm thin matresses, and we were ready to go back for more madness, and this second and last day was very promising.
Arriving once again at the beginning, we listened calmly to the reasonable Autoreverse and deceiving Reflex. Then we got closer for the very famous A-trak. This DJ is incredible. He won the DJing world championship aged 15 and now still does his sets exclusively on vinyl, which is much more complex than what most DJs do. It demands an incredible level of precision, which was totally mastered during this amazing set. His mixing techniques are extremely fluid and quick, a very impressive show just to watch.
A-trak led to the most awaited name of the night, the British Foreign Beggars. These guys are mad... The DJ also on vinyl, is an expert of scratching and is extremely talented, playing dubstep music. But the key of the band is its two rappers. With their amazing flow and their incredible performance, they just transformed the whole crowd into a totally bonkers mass of people. The atmosphere, much more violent and with pogos all over the place got everyone into a state of craziness. Amazing show!
Finally, while we thought the rest of the night was going to be calmer, we discovered Dirtyphonics live. As we were waiting we were told about them and how good they were. Our expectations rose, but were very low compared to what happened. It was hard to believe, but their performance was even crazier than Foreign Beggars'! Their hardcore Dubstep destroyed the last ounce of energy left in all of us and their mixing was excellent. They are 4 DJs mixing together! Imagine the technique and synchronisation you need for this! Unbelievable. And as if it wasn't enough, one of the FB rappers came back on stage at the end and fisnished us. They sprayed champagne all over the place, jumped in the crowd, and one of the Djs even jumped from a 5 meter high scaffold into the crowd... Wow just wow...
Overall this festival was just crazy, and even with the problems we had with the transport and camping, it was worth it. Great festival, if they can ameliorate the organisation, it will be close to perfection.
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