Pause Guitare Festival in Albi, France, is a smallish, friendly festival. Albi is an idyllic place to visit and I was happy to have an extra afternoon to walk around. The festival itself was relaxed and I enjoyed this year’s line-up. Gael Faye started as the first performer of the festival day and I didn’t understand the lyrics and had already in advance thought his music is not my genre but found the artist sympathetic and also interactive with his audience. I enjoyed his performance and was later told his lyrics are very open-minded as well. Juliette Armanette after him had a very good festival energy and the crowd responded well and was ready for Mika after that.

Each artist got strictly an hour to perform and it felt a bit short for a Mika show, obviously we always want more, but he made the most of it and tried to fit in as many songs as possible.

• Lollipop
  
• Origin 
• Big Girl
• Tiny Love
• Relax
• Ice Cream
• Yoyo
• Underwater
• Happy Ending
• Grace Kelly
• Elle Me Dit
• Love Today

 To save time Mika didn’t chat much between the songs but he still walked in the crowd during Big Girl and had a lot contact with the audience moving from one side to another using the stage well and standing on the piano which we saw well from the side. He paid attention to the guy who had a full make-up and Mika inspired tattoo shirt ( we saw him on stage during the Revelation Tour) and to a young boy who had made a colourful “You Are Golden” poster to show Mika from the audience. I couldn’t take my camera with me so I don’t have any photo material but I took a few videos with my mobile: Lollipop, Tiny Love, Yo-Yo. A good mood festival and a great, compact performance. Very enjoyable.