From March 23rd to the 25th 2018, in Montrouge (right next to Paris), took place the sixth edition of the Guitares au Beffroi festival with a beautiful concert program and a splendid guitar show with 75 exhibitors (luthiers, artisans, brands, etc.).
www.guitaresaubeffroi.com
Photo Album
There were many visitors in the guitar show throughout the week-end:
The guitars from A.J. Lucas (www.lucasguitars.co.uk) :
The guitars from FICAN Guitars (ficanguitars.com) from Australia:
A very nice collection of Springer Guitars (www.springerguitars.com):
A cool design on a Classical guitar by Christian Magdeleine (www.liutera.com):
The carbon fiber guitars from San Lorenzo Guitars (www.compositesound.com):
The Leonardo Guitar Research project (www.leonardo-guitar-research.com) was there too:
The backs of the instruments built by Franck Cheval (www.chevalguitars.com):
Big brands were also part of the guitar show, here with Duesenberg:
Nemeton Acoustic (www.nemeton.fr) introduced their lava stone table electric guitar:
The demo concerts were a big part of the success of the festival. Here's French fingerpicker François Sciortino on the acoustic guitar stage:
Group photo of the luthiers presenting a Local Wood Challenge guitar (europeanguitarbuilders.com/local-wood-challenge/):
Video coverage
Here's below the video done in a vlogging format from each day.
Friday 23/03/18
Saturday 24/03/18
Sunday 25/03/18
Facebook live - Sunday March 25th 2018
facebook.com/theguitarchannel
On top of the vlog videos, I did a live from the Facebook page, here's the replay:
The strong points
- Superb organization
- A show with a lot of quality exhibitors
- The demo concerts
- The location
- The team of volunteers
The weak point
- Separation of the Classical guitar space with the rest of the guitar show
Conclusion
A huge congratulations to Jacques Carbonneaux and Betty Proust who are the organizers of the Salon de la Belle Guitare. They did a wonderful job to present this beautiful show. The whole festival team also did a great job. Congratulations to them too!
The public was at there with only on the day of Saturday 1,300 visitors, a very nice score. And that's nice to see this trend. There was a lot of excitement throughout the weekend, whether it was from guitarists who came to visit the show, exhibitors or visiting musicians.
So when we announce pompously the guitar that would become tomorrow's accordion soon, I confess that I am skeptical about this prediction. Because it is clear that there are guitar-oriented events that continue to develop stronger than ever.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of guitar events that have been created and / or strongly developed in recent years: Guitares au Beffroi (of course), the Festival Guitare de Puteaux (first edition in 2017), the Guitar Summit (first edition in Germany in 2017), the Holy Grail Guitar Show (which will hold its fourth edition in 2018).
To return to the Montrouge guitar show, as I had in 2017 the responsibility of organizing the luthier show of the Festival Guitare de Puteaux, I had made a different choice by mixing in the exhibition space the exhibitors rather than to make a separation, according to me artificial, between the classical guitar and the rest. I think the choice to have this separation does not allow to present the world of the guitar in its entirety.
Congratulations to all the organization of the show and the festival for a magnificent sixth edition, which was undoubtedly the most successful since the creation of this event in 2013. Very proud to have been present with The Guitar Channel from the beginning of this adventure.
Until the next article or interview, keep on playing the guitar!
Pierre Journel.
