Les Francofolies, the biggest festival of modern French music kicks off in Blagoevgrad today and will be on until September 26. The festival had three highly successful editions from 1991 until 1993, right before Bulgaria became a member of the International Organization of La Francophonie in 1993 and featured some of France’s most popular stars. The prestigious Les Francofolies de la Rochelle festival is an annual event bringing in an audience of some 100,000 to La Rochelle, France each year.

Blagoevgrad is the 6^th city in the world, outside France, to become a world centre of French music. “Francofolies” have so far been held in Montreal - Canada, Spa - Belgium, New York, Buenos Aires and Berlin. Here is the mayor of Blagoevgrad, Atanas Kambitov with more about the revived Francofolies song festival:

“It is a fact – 22 years later, we are reviving this idea that came to fruition after three years of negotiations and lots of hard work. I would like to thank our French partners and the men and women from the municipality, because together we overcame many problems, we had our ups and downs. I would especially like to make mention of what the opinion of the festival’s director Gerard Pont was at the outset -  to begin with they were inclined to reject the project. But once they got acquainted with conditions on site, once they saw how eager we were to revive this tradition, the memory of those years prevailed. And as they say – all’s well that ends well. Les Francofolies is more than a music festival. We, at Blagoevgrad municipality want to turn the festival into a francophonie stage for all fans of French culture. One of the clauses in the contract stipulates that Blagoevgrad must be the Balkan city that has copyright for the festival and develop into a regional francophone centre.”

Some of the brightest stars of French music will be performing at the festival in Blagoevgrad: Patricia Kaas, Patrick Bruel, DJ Bob Sinclar, Feder, the electro swing band Caravan Palace, the cult rock band Kyo, Christophe Willem and rapper Soprano, but also Bulgarian singers like Vladimir Ampov aka the Count, Mihaela Fileva, Krisko, Deep Zone Project. Here now is Frédéric Charpail, who has been one of the organizers of the Les Francofolies de la Rochelle festival for over ten years:

“The idea belongs entirely to Blagoevgrad municipality, they got in touch with us and after lots of hard work, our efforts have been rewarded. We chose the city because of the potential we saw in it. It is a location that has the capacity to develop as a cultural tourism destination. We have lined up some of the most famous names in French music and we are hoping to see a big audience. The Balkans are a special place for francophonie and we must put in a lot of hard work in order to preserve and popularize the French language and French music here. Bulgaria is not all that popular in France or among musicians there, so I am hoping that this event will turn the attention of more people in France to your country.”

Les Francofolies is expected to bring in people from different towns across Bulgaria, but also from Serbia, Greece and Macedonia. The festival’s fans from France are particularly active attending its editions wherever they may be taking place in the world. More than 130 students from the Academician Lyudmil Stoyanov French language school will act as interpreters for the guests from France. France 2, Radio France Inter as well as the national dailies Le Figaro and Le Parisien have all stated they want to give coverage to the festival in Blagoevgrad. The big surprise is that admission to the festival will be free – a rare occurrence in the history of the Les Francofolies festivals.

English version: Milena Daynova