Mix Culture with Festivaling in the City of Love

When you consider the drunken NEDs at T in The Park or the hippies running around a field in Glastonbury, you don’t exactly think chic, stylish and cultured do you?

Now don’t get me wrong, I love some drunken festival chaos but I must admit to sometimes desiring something a bit more chic and with a little bit more “culture” in my festival menu.

Well, if you also desire a festival with a little bit more culture then where better to look than Paris and the idyllic Rock En Seine festival based on the banks of the Seine in one of the numerous parks scattered throughout Paris. The festival caters to the chic citizens of easily the world’s coolest city and offers four stages and three days of world class music.

Artists already confirmed include Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Death From Above 1979, The Kills, Biffy, Tinie Tempah, Miles Kane, Deftones and The Vaccines, as well as a splattering of local talent that is always worth checking out.

Throughout the festival you will stumble across works of art and there is a graffiti painting that grows as the weekend progresses with local artists adding to it throughout the day. If you’re unlucky enough to have children, they are catered for by the Mini Rock festival which will entertain them from 2pm until you’re finished raving away.

The festival is on the outskirts of Paris but is still serviced by the Metro so you can easily head back into the city and snuggle up in a warm hotel, or more likely a sparse hostel, but camping at the site is only around £20 for the weekend, based on four people sharing.

So camping is obviously cheap but a festival with a cracking line up must cost a fortune?

Well you’re wrong! Three day passes are only £95, or half what you would pay to go to TITP. Even when flights are taken into consideration, it’s still cheaper to go to Rock En Seine than TITP with the added bonus that there is much more to see in Paris after you have finished partying than there is in Balado. And there is no chance of a drunken NED ruining the whole thing for you.

So before you drudge off to some cold field in the middle of nowhere, consider going to the most beautiful city in the world to watch some of your favourite bands, whilst soaking up the culture and not having to worry about the less desirable types in Kappa ruining your weekend.

Top tip: Check out the Parisian night life by heading into town when you finish on the Saturday night. Also keep your eyes out for small intimate after-parties and gigs over the three days, ie LCD Soundsystem playing in the Apple Store last year.

Fly direct to Paris from Prestwick, Glasgow and Edinburgh and buy festival tickets here.



CR