La Folle Journee - Festival Madness

Music festivals are experiencing a golden age. There are more and more of them every year, attracting crowds of music lovers, loyal fans following their idols, and people who just want to spend a few interesting days with friends. Heineken Open'er has won the title of the best festival in Europe for two years in a row, and tickets for the English Glastonbury are sold out three months before the event. However, what may be surprising in the age of club, electronic sounds, the largest festival in the world is currently a classical music festival - La Folle Journée - Crazy Days of Music.

When in 1995 René Martin started his festival project in France, he wanted to attract the same crowds to performances of outstanding pianists, violinists, and singers as those who gathered at concerts of Michael Jackson, Madonna, or Depeche Mode. The nineties were not the easiest time to realize such plans - disco and pop music were reigning then, and such hits as "Scatman" by John Scatman or "Beautiful life" by Ace of Base were at the top of the charts. Leather jackets, denim vests, shiny leggings, and latex were in fashion.

However, Martin did not want to create a festival exclusively for classical music lovers, well-dressed, wealthy, educated middle-aged people. On the contrary - he wanted to break with the prevailing image of a stiff listener and break down the wall that had been built between the music of Chopin, Mozart, Brahms, and the rebellious youth looking to the future, rejecting the legacy of stars from the past era. René Martin was stubborn and ambitious, and he turned out to be an excellent artistic director!

Today La Folle Journée takes place in five countries around the world: in France, Portugal, Brazil, Japan (here in 5 cities), and since 2010 also in Poland. In last year's edition of the festival, over 400,000 listeners participated (for comparison - 85,000 came to Open'er, and about 140,000 to the Glastonbury festival). In Japan, over a million tickets were sold for all concerts!

No other classical music festival, or even contemporary one, has as many performers in the program or as many concerts. Last year there were 950 of them - and in Poland alone as many as 120! Anyone who has been to a festival knows that such a number can be somewhat overwhelming. What's more, dilemmas like "which concert to choose?" or "which one to give up?" often tear the heart apart! But during the Crazy Days of Music, you can afford a lot - even though the artists perform at the highest level, tickets cost only from 5 to 10 PLN, and the performances do not last longer than 45 minutes!

Rene Martin's festival is undoubtedly a real feast for those craving events on the classical music stage, but also a true "must be" in the calendar of events for people interested in music in its broader spectrum. Since its inception, such stars as sopranists Barbara Hendricks and Olga Pasiecznik, Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky, or our Polish composer and world-class conductor, Krzysztof Penderecki, have performed during the Crazy Days of Music.

Also this year, on September 29th, the procession of concerts by the most talented musicians in the world will begin. Many young but already known and respected artists will perform on the stages of the Grand Theatre - National Opera and in a specially prepared tent on Theatre Square: Israeli pianist Iddo Bar-Shaï, Frenchman Bertrand Chamayou, growing up like Strauss in a family full of musicians, Jakub Jakowicz, or the beautiful Japanese violinist, Sayaka Shoji. The festival will focus on European post-romanticism, so the sounds of works by Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Franz Liszt, and Karol Szymanowski - magnificent composers with rich life stories - will be heard.

The Crazy Days of Music will last from September 29th to October 2nd, and the concerts will last from morning till evening. Interesting arrangements, highly experimental performances, a special program for children will provide a lot of musical emotions!

If you are in love with classical music and have a poster from last year's Chopin Open on your wall, you probably have already bought a ticket or are just about to go for it. Even if you prefer Beyonce, Prince, Trentemøller, or dubstep 2562 to Mozart and Beethoven, you can try something new! Treat La Folle Journée as a challenge and an adventure! After all, Open'er and Tauron Nowa Muzyka are long gone, and the Unsound Festival is only in the second weekend of October... Try the Crazy Days of Music! The line-up and ticket information can be found here: www.SzaloneDniMuzyki.pl.