"Transforming the aesthetics of an internationally recognized contemporary music festival into a large-scale tourist and cultural venue"
is the objective set by Ben Barbaud, president of Hellfest, by 2024 for the festival of extreme music.
To do this, the Hellfest team unveiled, from Clisson (Loire-Atlantique) where the last weekend of concerts of this 15th edition started on Thursday, June 23, an ambitious urban project in partnership with the Nantes company La Machine.
Read alsoHellfest: two exceptional weekends and Metallica headlining
Ten meters high and capable of carrying 25 people, the Guardian of Darkness, a half-woman half-scorpion articulated machine made of wood and steel, will roam the plain of Clisson all year round.
The infernal chimera imagined by François Delarozière, artistic director of the La Machine company, will be posted at the entrance to the festival,
"remodeled into an entirely pedestrian square"
, and will be housed on site in the Porte des Ténèbres, a 450 m2 hangar that is both a maintenance and public reception area.
This new forecourt will also house a children's playground in the aesthetics of the festival and a brasserie called HellCity, on the site of the former Looksor nightclub, made famous by Philippe Katerine.
The aim of the project is to make the Clisson site even more lively all year round, which already welcomes visitors
"on pilgrimage"
outside the festival period.
Eight legs, a stinger and a fire-breathing mouth
On its website, the company La Machine reveals the first details of this Cerberus project
"which controls the passage between our world and that of hell":
"Many scars, scarifications and esoteric symbols punctuate his body, like the stigmata of a past, rich and eventful
life
.
Its steel skeleton "
set in motion by numerous hydraulic, pneumatic cylinders and automated electric motors"
and its eight legs will allow it to rear up, run, walk, and lie down "
to be at the height of the public
"
.
"
Its mouth and sting spit fire, water in different forms, and smoke.
She can bite.
His eyes, his eyelids, his tongue contribute to his expressiveness
”, specifies the Nantes company
.
If the work on the forecourt is not due to start until next year, the construction of
La Gardienne des Ténèbres
will begin this summer in the company's workshops in Nantes and will be completed in June 2024, for the festival.