While “live” music has almost disappeared from circulation with the Covid-19 crisis, the world of culture is racking its brains to bring it back to life as quickly as possible.
And in Greater Paris, the solution could well come from Seine-Saint-Denis, where the network of current music halls Maad 93 is preparing concerts that can be held outdoors, on sunny days, on mobile stages drawn from by electric bikes!
DJs and musicians will perform there, followed by an audience also on bicycles.
But they will also be able to play in front of standing spectators, during stopovers of the traveling stage.
The network relied on the know-how of the Véloma association, which builds eco-friendly cargo bikes powered by solar energy and transporting “sound systems”.
The fold-out stage will be towed by a pedal car
Last year, Véloma created a “boom-boom trailer” for a Bicycle Music Festival organized in Seine-Saint-Denis.
"We started from what had been done last year, and which had rained, to grow the project", explains Michel, member of the association.
The sketch of the nomadic scenes project, carried by the association Véloma and the current music network Maad 93. DR
In a few months, real “unfoldable scenes” - under construction - will therefore circulate in the department.
“They will be towed by a rosalie
(Editor's note: a kind of pedal car)
and the sound will be broadcast by two small trailers behind,” explains Léa Micner, project manager for the Maad 93.
The scene can be unfolded in two forms.
One, two meters long and wide, will be used for rolling concerts, with a maximum of two musicians on stage.
The other, three meters long, will double the number of artists, this time for fixed concerts.
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"Cycling concerts behind mobile stages, it's totally Covid-compatible"
The Maad 93 hopes to organize the first concerts in May, if the health situation allows.
Concerts that can be linked in several towns of the department.
“For example, we could organize one in Saint-Denis and then move on to Saint-Ouen, while continuing to play on the course, like a parade,” specifies Léa Micner.
And the next day, we can do the same with two other cities.
»Programming is not yet stopped.
Powered by solar energy, the stage will have an autonomy of 48 hours for the sound, and, towed with electric assistance, it can be used within a radius of 30 kilometers.
"An idea both funny and very ingenious"
The project seduced the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, which chose to finance it through its rebound plan for culture, amounting to two million euros.
Funding which was precisely targeted to "support projects for the future, making it possible to invest in new ways of doing things", specifies Stéphane Troussel, the president (PS) of the departmental council.
The community announces that it will also make its departmental parks, such as that of La Courneuve, available to install the mobile stage.
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"It is an ultra-relevant project in its way of approaching the return of the public in concert, estimates Thomas Meugnot, Music project manager for the department.
It's also a new way of thinking about outdoor play, which also responds to financial constraints because we can set up the stage at any time and in any place.
"
The health situation will therefore have pushed professionals to imagine new forms of concerts in public, without waiting for the possible reopening of the halls, still hypothetical despite the experiments soon to be carried out in Marseille and Paris.
“This prompts professionals to say to themselves:
How can I work outside the walls?
, observes Thomas Meugnot.
And this mobile scene is both fun and very ingenious, very innovative.
"
