Toulouse has never lived up to its nickname, the Pink City. On Saturday 31st August, 30,000 people attended the third edition of the Rose rap and song festival, which ran until Sunday 1st.Ahem September and which, in four days, brought together more than 110,000 people. All dressed in pink. Some people wore a fuchsia hat, others a candy-coloured T-shirt or a meat cap. Created by the two favourites of the city, the brothers from the rap group Bigflo and Oli, organised jointly with their tour operator Bleu Citron and the regional newspaper The Depêche du MidiThe festival shows its colours loud and clear: “Proof that we are not that brilliant at marketingOli sums up behind the scenes, We didn’t even think about imposing this colour code, it was the 5,000 spectators at the first edition who came dressed like this. Since then, everyone has been playing.”
Responsible for programming, artistic direction and merchandising, the two brothers also played a key role in the decor. Their friend, the singer Philippe Katerine, gave them an inflatable structure, a five-metre-high man, obviously pink, placed next to one of the two stages facing each other. They also recreated an entire district of Toulouse, the Place Saint-Pierre and its legendary bars, with signs in… pink letters. The atmosphere is very fair-like with a Ferris wheel installed on site.
The decoration is not the only feat of the two brothers. They designed the festival for the public and the artists: “We did a lot of industrial espionageOli jokes. We have been going to festivals for years, as spectators and as artists. We tried hard to find a place that was easily accessible by public transport. There the tram drops off the spectators almost at the entrance. Tired of festivals where you have to walk for an hour in the mud. And for the artists we thought of details that only we know about, proper showers next to the dressing rooms, so that they don’t have to carry dirty underwear. And the tour buses are not parked far away. »
Balanced programming
The programme is also particularly balanced. On Saturday 31 August, for example, the singer Pomme and her country vibe followed the new wave rap of Rounhaa, who came on stage hooded and carrying a microphone surrounded by black thorns; the day before, the electro of DJ Nina Kraviz followed the hardcore of Booba. Thursday 29 August, Francis Cabrel on MC Solaar and Jain. The Rose Festival is not just about rap. It reflects the tastes of the two rappers, great fans of hip-hop, but also the son of a salsa singer and an enthusiast of French song. “At firstOli admits, We made the festival for ourselves, selfishly, to bring home the biggest names in rap. But in previous years, the parents of our friends who came only knew one artist out of six. So this time we wanted to treat everyone. »
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