The announcement of the event had its effect: “Damn! Soon a music festival near Toulouse! Or more exactly at the Domaine d’Ariane in Mondonville, located just twenty kilometers from the Pink City. The break imposed by the fine team of Bigflo & Oli and their Toulouse producer coincided with the time of the health crisis. But the atmosphere is at the restart, the return of artists to the front of the musical scene – the album is ready – and the media by launching (finally) this event which should be talked about and attract a young population when it is held. . Samuel Capus, the co-director of Bleu Citron explains its genesis.

So that’s it ?! The festival will arrive in September 2022, that’s for sure?

Goodbye ! (laughs) It took a long time to get there because we have been talking about this festival from the very beginning and since 2018 more intensely. On 17 sites studied! The first projects planned place de l’Europe in downtown Toulouse and on the Bocage site in Fenouillet. But for the first, the pitfall related to the time slots with the end of concerts at 10 pm which does not allow the electro artists to have a different play of light and therefore a different experience. For Fenouillet everything was ready in 2019 but we realized several problems including the difficult transport of the public on a Friday at 5 p.m. and the presence of nutria which had dug cavities dangerous for the public. We were in the middle of Covid when I explained that to Bigflo & Oli and we cursed because even the rats were getting into it! (laughs)

How did you come to choose the Mondonville site?

It is the director of the company Newrest (specialist in out-of-home catering, Editor’s note) Thomas Le Bihan who told us to see this amazing site, quite pretty in addition, which includes a football field, a rugby field, a gymnasium , 27 hotel rooms, dormitories, a dining hall, electricity, roads, everything you need to consider a festival, 5 minutes from the airport. And, very close, the MEETT (Exhibition center and convention center of Toulouse) whose parking and space allow to manage the influx of cars and the public.

The place also has a social vocation which must not have displeased Bigflo & Oli …

Yes, we have had discussions with Audrey Moyaux who manages the Education League and takes care of this site which has a real background, which welcomes children from the DDASS in extreme urgency at night, which received a lot of them during the Covid. The little ones come to a summer camp there, which really matches the DNA of Bigflo & Oli and that of the Rose association that we wanted to create. So we set up a lot of operations with them, 2.0 colonies to learn how to use digital technology, bordering on social networks which are a means of expression and not a TV that we gobble up. So the association will make cultural mediation through summer camps, initiatives in high schools, a springboard.

Artistically, the announced set is already enticing, who triggered the programming?

There are three of us with Bigflo & Oli and it is indeed not a discounted festival or a festival that competes with what already exists in Toulouse. These are artists who should not go to festivals here, it is something unique since the city does not have a large popular and young festival. So there is IAM and Paul K who are specific musicians but then it’s a festival made by two young people for young people and Toulouse in fact, and all the people who come from elsewhere. Others will be announced in the coming months, but one of the big hits in the lineup is Ziak, the rap artist of the moment. But there are still many things to decide …

Two ROSE days

The first list of artists announced: Damso, Polo & Pan, Ziak (Friday) and IAM, Paul Kalkbrenner and Chilla (Saturday). The event takes place on the Domaine d’Ariane, an international center for stays in Toulouse with a capacity of 200 beds, specializing in welcoming groups and families. Prices for attending concerts: 46 euros each day or 72 euros for two days and 80 euros Pass 2 days and camping.
Friday September 2 and Saturday September 3, 2022 at Domaine d’Ariane in Mondonville near Toulouse. www.rosefestival.fr