The first rock music festival near Lac de Malsaucy was held in 1989. It was named Le Ballon – Territoire de musiques (Ballon – Territory of Music) after the Ballon d’Alsace (the Alsatian Belchen), a mountain in Alsace where it was supposed to take place. However, the Malsaucy lake was chosen instead. The festival was the brainchild of the department council of the Territoire de Belfort department. It was designed to make the department more attractive for tourists, especially young people. The inaugural event featured mainly French artists and attracted around 10,000 attendees.
In 1999, Belfort’s rock festival was renamed the Eurockéennes de Belfort. It has been held under this name ever since. The attendance has been growing steadily over the years and now the event draws over 100,000 festival goers every year. Most of the time there are simultaneous concerts on several stages such as the Main Stage (headlining acts), Green Room Esplanade (the second largest stage), La Plage (a stage on the lake shore), Le Club Loggia (a stage reserved for local and emerging artists). The stages have various capacity, from 8,000 (Le Club Loggia) to 25,000 (the Main Stage).
Over the years, the Eurockéennes de Belfort has welcomed a lot of world-class musicians and bands, including Bob Dylan, Bryan Adams, Lou Reed, Lenny Kravitz, Lana Del Rey, Stromae, Arctic Monkeys, The Prodigy, The Offspring, Metallica, Massive Attack, and many others. Although the primary focus of Les Eurockéennes is rock music, the festival also features other music genres and styles such as pop, hip-hop, reggae, EDM, etc. It is the quality of music that matters, not the style.
The organizers of the festival pay much attention to sustainable development, environmental protection and preserving the Malsaucy Lake ecosystem. The Eurockéennes de Belfort is a non-profit event and the tickets are quite inexpensive for a major music festival. Ticket holders can stay at the festival campground for no additional fee. The organizers believe that attending a large and prestigious music event doesn’t have to be a luxury and work hard to reinforce this message every year.
Photo: Brice Robert Photographe
