Consequently,
Bad assessment 2025 rock en:
Guillaume Baptiste / AFP
The main scene of the Rock en Seine festival at sunset in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, August 21, 2025. Furthermore,
MUSIC – An edition far from being a success in the figures. Consequently, The Rock en Seine festival. In addition, which ended this Sunday, August 24, experienced a significant drop in its attendance compared to the year 2024, after being affected by several headliners and a controversy around the programming of the North Irish Punk group Kneecap.
For its 21st edition, the Parisian festival gathered 148,000 spectators in five days. Consequently, It was nearly 30,000 people less than bad assessment 2025 rock en in 2024, where 180,000 festival-goers went to the national domain of Saint-Cloud, very close to Paris. Meanwhile, “We are close to 150,000. It is below what we hoped, it’s true. […] There was a little less attraction for programming than last year “ concedes Matthieu Ducos. Rock boss in Seine, in an interview with the Parisian.
The latter highlights several factors to explain this clear fall. “We were penalized by the advanced date and which arrives early in the summer. Many have not yet returned from vacation, as we have seen in invitation solicitations among others ”he explains first.
Cancellations of headliners also did not help. This is particularly the case of the American rapper Asap Rocky. who disengaged from several festivals in Europe in July, then the rapper Doechii, a new feeling of rap across the Atlantic, a few days before the start of rock bad assessment 2025 rock en in Seine. “We have two days below. including Thursday impacted by the cancellations of Asap Rocky then Doechii at the last minute”concedes Matthieu Ducos.
“It’s not a delightful year” – Bad assessment 2025 rock en
The festival now has also been affected by a controversy around the arrival of the North Irish punk group Kneecap. one of the three members is prosecuted by British justice “Terrorist offense” After having covered himself, during a concert in London in 2024, of a flag of Hezbollah, classified terrorist in the United Kingdom.
Under surveillance, the concert went without major hitching, despite a tense atmosphere at the entrance to the festival. Kneecap has nevertheless mentioned the situation in Gaza several times. denouncing that “The French government is an accomplice” car “He sells or facilitates arms trade in the Israeli army”or chanting: “Netanyahu is a war criminal”.
But this decision to maintain the bad assessment 2025 rock en Kneecap group had clear consequences on the festival budget. The town hall of Saint-Cloud had thus announced to withdraw its 40. 000 euros from subsidies, before the Île-de-France region did the same with its envelope of 295,000 euros.
“It is not trivial given our delicate financial situation this year. with a falling crowd”, concedes Matthieu Ducos to the Parisian, explaining that “Financially, indeed, it is not a delightful year”. But the latter claims to have “Landed to reaffirm the festival as a free expression field from the moment the group respects laws. our values. It was considered that he had to play insofar as he did not deviate from this framework ”.
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