- Over the course of the past five years, the sheer amount of techno and house festivals in France has grown to the point where it's become difficult for up-and-coming promoters to stand out and assert themselves. In Paris, Weather Festival has hosted three separate events in the past year, with regular guests including heavyweights like Ricardo Villalobos, Nina Kraviz and Underground Resistance. With Weather, Paris has finally conjured a homegrown response to world-class events such as Awakenings in Amsterdam, Sónar in Barcelona or Melt! in Germany, all of which proffer big-room hysteria and huge lineups to thousands of sweaty punters.
What makes Macki Music Festival so appealing to a certain fringe of the Parisian crowd, though, has little to do with the amount of headline acts on their flyers. The promoters, local crews Cracki and La Mamie's, don't try to compete with events like Weather Festival in terms of size. Instead, they've chosen to curate a festival in a manner similar to how they run their regular parties: small-scaled and friendly, featuring a handpicked string of like-minded artists in a gorgeous location (in this case a riverside, sun-drenched park in the outer suburbs of Paris).
Despite their young age, the lads behind La Mamie's are no strangers to Parisian club culture. For the past four years, they've held a residency at La Ferme Du Bonheur (Happiness Farm), a charming farmhouse stranded on a suburban university campus in Nanterre. The open-air parties held at the Ferme over the years, which have hosted the likes of John Morales, Rahaan and Rush Hour boss Antal, did much to initiate the French crowd to diverse, soulful and organic grooves, at a time when minimal techno and tech house were still the ruling genres of club music in Paris.
What made those parties so special lay in their capacity to make dancers feel at home. Friendly security and staff, affordable drinks and food, and an overall sense of community made the Ferme stand out in comparison with Paris's too-often rigid and stuffy nightlife. Translating this notion of libertarian conviviality into a festival guideline would be no small feat.
Cracki and La Mamie's deserve serious praise for making the Macki experience such a genuine family affair. It was the kind of festival where you could bring your kids without fearing for their well-being; and indeed, children roamed the festival grounds and it didn't feel weird or out of context. On Saturday afternoon, the merry pranksters from Le Camion Bazar (one of Paris's most beloved underground crews) stole the show on their alternative stage, delivering trippy house grooves and lovingly kitsch disco rarities. Despite their over-the-top attitude and onstage antics, they performed a steady set which brought a cheerful grin to every dancer's face.
Over on the main stage, a classy and artsy performance from hip-hop newcomer Chester Watson got the party going, before Afrobeat legend Tony Allen took to the drums as the night settled in. His live show was flawless, and the crowd was all but warmed-up by the time headliner Floating Points appeared on stage. Sam Shepherd's skills on the decks are no secret at this point, and his set was full of generous disco gems and a couple of hard-hitting house bangers (including Jay Daniel's epic "I Have No Name"). A personal highlight was War's special US mix of the all-time classic "The World Is A Ghetto," a slow-burning and soulful track which Shepherd dropped 20 minutes into his set. His performance, which closed out the Saturday, was the most inspired of the day.
Sunday's lineup was more fulfilling still. Nightmares On Wax's early live set was a perfect way to ease into the afternoon—by the time the band had dropped the first chords of "Flip Ya Lid," the crowd was already cheering and clapping. Next up were Onyx. The veterans of New York hip-hop's golden age delivered an energetic performance, despite a half-hearted reaction from part of the audience. Around 6 PM, the vibe got more rowdy as homegrown hero Mad Rey (the main man behind the D.KO crew and label) took to the decks on the Camion Bazar stage. His live set was exhilarating, as he effortlessly moved between hip-hop inspired house grooves (in a style reminiscent of Uncanny Valley's Cuthead) to heavy acid cuts. Meanwhile at the main stage, Antinote's Syracuse were busy setting fire to the crowd with deep synth-led lines and feisty 808 grooves. Romare's set, by comparison, was a tad underwhelming: his performance was excellent in itself but the audience just weren't feeling him as much as his French counterparts.
The festival was fast approaching its conclusion by this point, but luckily the closing act also turned out to be the most exciting of the weekend. My Love is Underground label-head Jeremy Underground has proven himself as one of France's most distinguished diggers in recent years. His set, more lively and dynamic than the one delivered by Floating Points on the same slot the previous day, was my personal highlight of the festival. At one point, he dropped Tabu Ley's "Haffi Deo," a cheerful and warm '80s Afropop gem which my friends and I had been blasting all summer.
Jeremy Underground's patchwork style is perhaps the most pertinent illustration of what the Parisian crowd has come to expect from La Mamie's and Cracki as curators and as DJs. Together, they've created a microcosm where disco, funk, house, techno and hip-hop can coexist. Their unapologetic passion for Afro-American grooves and for nostalgic dance cuts is no longer a niche movement in Paris. With this second edition of the Macki Music Festival, they're now a force to be reckoned with.
Photo credit: Rémy Golinelli (Lead, Sheep, Tony Allen, Jeremy Underground), Laure Chichmanov (Camion Bazar, Golden couple)