The world's certainly become a smaller place in recent years. Not that long ago an event like Main Square Festival in Arras would have been something of a secret to an anglophone audience.
Ignored by the music press, the fact that it attracts big names like Radiohead would have been an oddity, obviously just the bands 'warming up' for the proper festivals in the UK.
Besides, don't those European festivals feature those strange eurobands that no-one's heard of? Some of them don't even perform in English...
Thankfully time's moved on, and not only are some of France's festivals reaching out to an anglophone audience but they're making an effort to be not only televised but available to watch online so you can see for yourself what you're missing. And from watching this kind of coverage, who wouldn't want to go to a music festival like Main Square?
The prices compare favourably with the big ticket prices for UK events, the organisation surpasses many of the UK events, the food and drink are a cut above and the weather is almost always better.
This year's Main Square was a three day event at the cenre of the town that featured Radiohead, others included System of a Down, Biffy Clyro and Rag 'n' Bone Man. For those looking beyond the anglosphere, there were Jain, Thylacine and plenty of others, including La Femme, one of the finest acts operating in France at the moment.
La Femme are playing pretty much every summer festival in France over the summer. Even if you just go to see whatever anglo American acts are on the top of the bill, La Femme strongly make the case that there's more going on in Europe than just waiting for the big acts from over here to play over there.
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