French music lovers defy the crisis and flock to Francofolies in La Rochelle

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The financial crisis led organisers to be pessimistic over attendances for this year's Francofolies festival in La Rochelle, but they were delighted with the results, despite the national controversy that has plagued the event.

This year, the festival was staged over five days instead of the customary six, but attracted the same attendance as it did in 2008, with 80,000 spectators enjoying the eclectic programme of artists.  The event finished yesterday (Tuesday 14 July) and was headlined by Olivia Ruiz, Charlie Winston and Benabar, who proved more popular than the 2008 line-up of Mika, Vanessa Paradis and Alain Bashung.

Francofolies is a popular annual celebration of French music in all its guises, and it has stood the test of time, with this being the twenty-fifth edition.

However, the 2009 edition brought with it controversy, with French rapper Orelsan (hailed as France's answer to Eminem) being dropped from the line-up, after the Poitou-Charentes president Segolene Royal threatened to withdraw public funding.

She had taken offence at a song the rapper released two years ago called 'Sale Pute' (dirty whore), which was slammed by feminist groups for the violent nature of the lyrics.  Surprisingly, the right-wing UMP party leapt to the rapper's defence, in the name of freedom of artistic expression.

The festival ended yesterday against a backdrop of the setting sun, and the fireworks of the Bastille Day holiday.

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