Family Piknik is one of Europe’s premier techno festivals and it has been for many years.
It offers all shades of tech under the sun – and usually the sun is shining given it takes place in Southern France – with legends and newcomers alike playing 5th and 6th of August.
This summer it is back once again with another mega line-up featuring Carl Cox (Hybrid Live), Adam Beyer, Ben Böhmer, ANNA, Margaret Dygas, Anthea, Gene On Earth, Raresh and more. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the English section of the Family Piknik website.
All this goes down in some superb locations and we find out more from the man who puts it all on, Tom Pooks.
How are you, what’s good and bad in your world?
Summer is always busy! Yesterday, we were on the beach for a Road to Family Piknik event. We’re used to having some pre-season events prior to our summer big weekend. So yes, it’s sunny and hot but no time for rest at the moment…
How hard is it to put on this festival each year?
It’s always a big challenge because we have to restart everything year on year. Of course, some production aspects have been improved through these 12 past years. It’s our main goal to get better and gain efficiency on some key aspects, may they be linked to ecology, user experience, stage production, human resources… The hardest part is not depending on ourselves, most of the time, this is the consequence of administrative complexity or institutional decisions. We always have to deal with these.
What are the best bits of working on it all year?
If you want to grow year on year, you learn how important it is to have time and manage your time schedule comfortably, 10 months or so before D-day. Also, as we’re not only a festival but also a music label and booking agency, we need to have a vision and long term strategy.
What informs the line-up this year?
We’re pretty proud of our lineup this year again, as it’s harder and harder to compete with international festivals hailing from all around the world. Artist fees are higher than never and you need to struggle with mad offers coming from Dubai, USA and Asia. So you need to have a strong concept and solid reputation, as well as a bit of friendship with artists, to secure your headliners. Carl Cox, Anna, Adam Beyer, Ben Böhmer, Popof, Space 92 and all the artists we have this year on stage are perfectly aware of who we are and what we do. We’re not a random festival and it’s our pride.
What else have you got coming up?
Like I said earlier, we have a promo tour prior to the summer main weekend, so we visit a few venues in the south of France to promote our music, brand and artists. Next step will be in Toulouse on July 21st, at Poney Club, with Adana Twins and Magit Cacoon. After the August main event, we’ll go to Paris on September 23-24h as we’re part official partners of Techno Parade’s 25th birthday. We’ll parade over the streets and straight after that we’ll host the official After Party at Le Periph (Villette) with guests like Hi-Lo, Eli Brown, Patrice Bäumel and many others. After that, we’ll come to ending our season on October 7th with our usual big closing event taking place in Béziers Arenas. After Brejcha & Kalkbrenner, we’ll have Solomun performing this year.
Why should people come in where they haven’t been before?
I think our concept is very different from most of the usual electronic music events. It’s worth the try ! Dancing by day, open-air, next to all generations is something very fresh and satisfying.
How important is it to use local DJ talent and how do you tap into that?
We have always supported local talents and newcomers. That’s one of the reasons we’ve built our own artist roster. This year, we run a DJ contest so there will be young talents opening our stage !
What about diversity, how important is it to have a good mix of genders, races, sexualities on the lineup?
It’s something we don’t want to idealize or politize, we concretely act for parity on our stage inviting talented women to perform but we’ve never acted with bad reasons doing so. We just chase for talents, whoever they are, we don’t want to be under pressure of any kind of trends or lobbying.
What is there to do outside the music?
Chill out and enjoy the south of France during the summer is always a good thing, especially if you like to drink and eat good products. This summer, we’ll have a camping trip and many festival attendees will socialize through all the lovely touristic activities you can find in our area, next to the Mediterranean sea.
For more information or to buy tickets, head to the English section of the Family Piknik website.
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