Festival Les Deferlantes in Le Barcares, France 12/7/2024

Festival Les Deferlantes in Le Barcares in Southern France has during years become a massive music event. I saw Mika at Les Deferlantes years and years ago when the event was still much smaller but now knew in advance that this time it would be big and quite hectic. The concept for the event includes two huge stages next to each other and the schedule moves from one stage to another. When one performer stops at one stage, another one immediately starts at the other one and the audience can in advance choose their favourites and take a location either on the left or on the right and then watch the other stage from a big screen. Mika was scheduled on the left stage starting after 10 pm. 

Because of the two stage concept there was no breaks for the audience at all and practically it wasn’t possible to use toilets or buy anything to eat or drink after the schedule had properly started without losing the spot, the crowd was quite full and it was difficult to walk through it, and without any moments to breathe between artists the hectic day felt tiring and after using every muscle to cope in the crowd during the rap duo before Mika - that time the crowd suddenly became very pushy - we all were quite exhausted. Crowd being pushy is not new to me and I was also located a little bit side of the stage which made the circumstances easier but I could see some people had to struggle against the pressure and the security pulled out many young people who couldn’t move in the crowd without help. Generally the security seemed professional and reacted everything quickly so the massive event was well handled.

I’m telling all this because when it was finally Mika’s turn it truly felt like a reward after a hard day. We all were a bit tired but at the same time incredibly happy. The performer on the right side used extra time and we could see Mika already impatiently waiting for his turn and I was worried his performance would be cut to keep the schedule but luckily his setlist seemed exactly similar as at Solidays where he performed an hour as well. The line-up was in no way logical and I would have definitely preferred Mika performing either before the rap duo in daylight or doing a longer performance like the artist at the other side but the hour he performed was definitely full of energy and worth the wait and we all couldn’t have been happier when he finally started the show.

The circumstances were for sure not ideal for artists in general. The wind was very hard - when I look at my video clips I can see Mika’s jacket was almost flying away in the wind after he opened it - and the sound seemed to be a challenge for everyone.  Despite of these small difficulties the energy in the performance was fantastic and everything looked amazing and made me totally forget my tiredness. I needed energy so the most high energy songs like Elle Me Dit became a bit unusually my favourites of the whole night. I don’t have many photos of the event. I didn’t want to carry anything extra in the crowd and I had only my mobile and even with that took only a few photos but in the end of the gig wanted to snap one with the big wheel because it made the view so distinctive.

The one hour setlist includes the biggest hits from the albums number 1, 2, and 3 and has delightfully also C’est la vie from the latest one in the middle of it. During Big Girl Mika obviously headed to the audience as always even though just moment before his turn the security had to pull out numerous people because they couldn’t move in the crowd without help or even breathe. After getting safely back on stage he entertained the audience escaping his technician who was trying to fix his microphone. The setlist was about like below:

  • Origin
  • Relax
  • Lollipop
  • Big Girl
  • C’est la vie
  • Happy Ending
  • Elle Me Dit
  • Grace Kelly
  • Love Today
  • We Are Golden
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