The large festival in the north of Nyon now attracts over 230,000 visitors. Dany Hassenstein, artist booking, is particularly looking forward to the Red Hot Chili Peppers this year.
Series: Festival Summer 2017 | Episode 16: Paléo Festival Nyon
Dany Hassenstein is responsible for artist booking at the Paléo Festival. (Credit Aniessa Jotterand)
Dany Hassenstein, what is special about your festival this year?
Apart from the concerts, of course, which are always special, we actually always have important and interesting changes from edition to edition. In particular, our Village du Monde, a festival within a festival, is dedicated to a different musical, culinary and decorative theme every year. In 2017, this will be Central America, with outstanding artists from Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Jamaica, Porto Rico, etc. Our quarter for street artists will also reinvent itself this year in its tenth anniversary. In addition, we are once again making large areas available to the West Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences for design.
Which acts are you particularly proud of?
Bringing the Red Hot Chili Peppers to a festival is a great thing, and we are proud of that. We also think the evening with Pixies, Midnight Oil and Arcade Fire was great.
What criteria did you use to put together the line-up?
Our festival lasts six days and most visitors buy day tickets. This means we have a different audience every evening and try to program the days thematically. This results, for example, in evenings with more rock, others with more French chansons, hip hop or electro. We also want to arouse the audience's curiosity and encourage the discovery of lesser-known artists and musical styles. The seven stages offer both a springboard for young talent and a platform for established stars from all over the world.
The Paléo Festival offers cozy seating with style. (Credit Marc Amiguet)
What else is on offer besides the music?
The quality of the infrastructure, the spacious grounds and the very good quality of the food are particularly noteworthy, and certainly an important difference to other festivals; Paléo attaches great importance to the variety and value for money of the more than 100 food stalls.
Which moment are you personally looking forward to the most?
The Chili Peppers, Foals, Temples, Taxiwars and Manu Chao.
What's the best experience you've had with the festival?
Neil Young in 2013: He played "Like a Hurricane" for 40 minutes in torrential rain with a thunderstorm and took the audience to another dimension.
How would you describe your festival briefly and concisely in a tweet (max. 140 characters)?
The Paléo Festival Nyon sees itself as a link between festival and concert and has many exciting aspects in addition to the music.
Year founded:1976
Number of visitors:over 230'000 in 6 days
Biggest acts: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Manu Chao, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Temples
Number of stages:7
Arrival:Via Nyon by train or car.
Website: paleo.ch
