Festival Beauregard

The full line-up for this summer's Festival Beauregard - a four day event in Normandy - has been unveiled, with some great names playing this year.

Depeche Mode are at the top of the bill, which is kind of a big deal, and also at the top are Jack White, The Offspring and Macklemore.

While international acts seem to dominate the top places, there are plenty of French acts throughout, with some of France's most interesting artists taking part.

Orelsan and Nekfeu are two rappers at the top of their game right now, and both are playing. Charlotte Gainsbourg, while a very different artist, is also enjoying something of a critical and commercial glow at the moment on the back of her recent album.

Also on the bill are Girls in Hawaii, Petit Biscuit, Hollysiz and Carpenter Brut. All artists that have been mentioned here in the past, all well worth seeing and all delivering strong new material in recent months.

It remains a difficult economic time for festivals, with competing events taking place over a crowded summer season and prices increasing, but organisers who select the acts well can still succeed and a good mix of respected French acts and some big name international acts is a pretty decent mix for an event line Beauregard.

Its location - close enough to the UK for a weekend visit - and its ticket prices that compare favourably to similar events in the UK makes Beauregard a real proposition for British music fans. Let's not forget it's in France, the weather will be better and the atmosphere will be pretty fine as well.

This year marks the festival's tenth anniversary, and while that might make it a comparative new event compared to some of France's other music festivals, it's certainly proved there is a place for it in the French summer music events schedule.

Festival: Beauregard

Full details have been published of the bill for this year's Beauregard festival in Normandy at the end of June this summer.

Thursday June 30 , the Day Before sees Les Insus headlining, and sets from Gandi Lake and Last Train.

Friday July the first sees the event get underway in full, with Feu! Chatterton and Nekfeu Rone and Nuit. International acts include The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beck, the Chemical Brothers.

The Saturday includes La Femme, Brigitte, The Avener, Fakear and Lilly Wood and the Prick,. Other acts include Robert Plant, The Kills and The Horrors.

Sunday sees sets from Grand Parc, Grand Blanc, Jeanne Added, Jain. Lou Doillon and Louise Attaque, alongside PJ Harvey Jurassic 5 and others.

For all it has many huge international acts, there are plenty of French acts that we've covered regularly in this blog as well. A well chosen selection.

It's the eighth time the event has been held. Last year more than 80,000 people attended the event, with sets from among others Christine and the Queens, Sting, Lenny Kravitz  and Scorpions. It's some a long way from the first time the festival was held was in 2009, a two day event for 20,000 that saw the likes of Pete Doherty, Charlie Winston, Mogwai and Editors play.

It's held at the Domaine de Beauregard park in Hérouville-Saint-Clair and a variety of tickets from single day to multi-day are available.

Festival: Festival Beauregard

Details of another summer festival in France have emerged, this time its the Festival Beauregard near Caen in Normandy.

Acts taking park include Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, New Order, Smashing Pumpkins, Alt-J, Bloc Party, The Hives, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Bat For Lashes, the Vaccines, Miles Kane, The Maccabees and Dead can Dance.

Among the French acts taking part are -M-, Olivia ruiz, Skip the Use, C2C and Benjamin Biolay.

It's the fifth time the festival's been held, and it looks like the biggest bill they've put on so far. Last year saw the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Tindersticks, Sébastien Tellier and Franz Ferdinand play at the event.

The festival takes place on the 5th to the 7th of July.

Full details are on the festival's website http://www.festivalbeauregard.com/