Full disclaimer: The Guitar Channel was the co-organizer of the festival
with the responsability of the luthier show with 49 exhibitors and the 27 demo concerts.
From Friday September 29th until Sunday October 1st 2017, the Festival de Guitare de Puteaux took place in the Jean-Baptiste Lully music academy in Puteaux, just west of Paris (France), a stone throw from the business district of La Défense. The entry of the festival was free except for the evening concerts. The festival included a guitar show with 49 exhibitors, 27 demo concerts and 2 masterclasses on top of the evening and afternoon concerts.
Web : festival-guitare.puteaux.fr
Facebook : facebook.com/festivalguitareputeaux/
Instagram : instagram.com/festivalguitareputeaux/
Video of the Festival de Guitare de Puteaux 2017
Th festival day by day on Snapchat
During the three days, The Guitar Channel was covering the event with strange sunglasses on: the Snapchat Spectacles. The Snaps were posted on this account: pierrejournel. Below is the compilation of the snaps for each day to give you a feel of what it was from the inside.
Day 1 - Friday night:
Day 2 - Saturday:
Day 3 - Sunday:
Puteaux 2017 photo album
The spacious hall of the Lully conservatory:
The free concerts in the atrium were greatly appreciated:
Gaëdic Chambrier (ww.gaedicchambrier.com) was exhibiting his incredible collection of instrument before giving his show with 40 instruments on stage on Sunday:
The guitar show in full swing on the 3rd floor, here's a photo of one of the four halls used by the exhibitors:
Here's another view of one of the four halls used by the guitar show:
The luthier Pierre Bertrand (www.bertrandmusic.fr) was one of the 49 exhibitors present:
The luthier Tony Girault (www.giraultguitars.com) was presenting his electric guitars at Puteaux 2017:
The Kelt Amplication (www.keltamplification.com) booth was one of the highlight of the guitar show:
The gorgeous acoustic guitars by Richard Baudry (www.richardbaudry.com):
The Guitar Recipe (www.guitarrecipe.com) booth was presenting guitars built by 4 different luthiers:
Shaï Sebbag doing one of the 27 demo concerts:
Jean-Félix Lalanne (with the guitar) hosting a conference with the luthier Michel Donadey (in the middle):
Masterclass by Jean-Félix Lalanne and Eric Gombart:
Jean-Michel Kajdan giving a masterclass:
Debrief
With about 2,700 visitors over the three days, the festival can boast of having been a great popular success, a real performance since it was the first edition of the event.
We should salute the tremendous work carried out by the entire conservatory team, starting with its director Patrick Marco who has deployed a crazy amount of energy to make it happen.
For The Guitar Channel who worked for the conservatory in a co-organizing role this was an incredible amount of work but also a very exciting work. We did not regret for one second to be involved in such a cool guitar project.
What was really good
- The conservatory building is very suitable for a music event of this size
- The welcoming of the visitors
- The quality and varied programming of the concerts
- Exhibition venues of the guitar show
- The 6 test studios available to visitors
- The 27 demo concerts
What we need to improve
- The distribution of visitors on the 4 showrooms
- An even more developed communication to reach more guitarists
Conclusion
For the visitor into guitar, the guitar show was very well appreciated. In particular, the ability to try out guitars in fully-equipped test studios with amps and pedals was a huge plus. It should be noted that the possibility of testing the instrument in good conditions in a salon is rarely done very well, whether it be a dedicated guitar show or a big event such as the NAMM or the Musikmesse. Most of the time the visitors cannot really get a good experiene at trying the gear presented. So to have 6 studios available for the public was unheard of and one of the strongest point of the Puteaux guitar show.
Here's a photo of one of the 6 studios:
The 27 concert demonstration concerts by Shai Sebbag, Arnaud Leprêtre and Marc Lonchampt, professional musicians paid by the festival, worked very well as a showcase for exhibitors. The videos of these concerts will soon be available on YouTube once the edition has been made by the conservatory.
The concerts and masterclasses throughout the 3 days were also a big success with a big turnout for each event.
Hopefully we can start working very quickly on a 2018 edition!
Pierre.
