Matthieu Corosine: “Witnessing the joy on people’s faces…is incredibly fulfilling”

The vision we had was commonly shared with the President of the Palais des Festivals, David Lisnard (who is the current mayor of the city). Cannes was a place known for its fame, its 5-star palaces, its huge congresses and fairs, bringing people and media from all over the world, but there was missing an event for the younger crowd, accessible price-wise, with music and enjoyment. That is how Les Plages Electroniques was born in 2006 with a simple concept, 5 beach parties in the summer, 5 styles of Electronic music, and 5 euros per party. We welcomed about 300 to 400 people each day and that was already a success for us. From 300 to 60,000 attendees over the weekend, the vision has been quite the same but the format evolved over the years, becoming the biggest beach party in France and awarded best French festival for 3 years in a row (by DJ MAG TOP100). It has been a long journey, filled with adversity and setbacks, but we kept believing in our project and are pretty proud of the result today!

There are a few layers to curating such a festival. To make it short and simple, you have to have your big headliners, your middle acts, your newcomers and your locals. We give a big importance to what our crowd wants and likes and every year, we send them a survey to monitor who they would like to see playing the year after and that inspires us to book the headliners. We also do a lot of benchmarking digitally on socials and physically going to a lot of concerts and festivals all year long in order to find the new gems of the scene. Our team also give us a lot of inspiration and help us connect to our crowd musically. As a music festival is also a platform to showcase local talents of its territory, we carefully observe the local scene to pick the future talents of our area and give them a nice push by confronting them to a larger crowd. Overall it’s a very interesting and complex part of making the festival but always a bet to match with our crowds tastes in good timing.

By now, everyone is pretty aware that live music is reaching kind of the peak of a crisis that actually started way before covid. The digital consumption of music via all the platforms available reduces drastically the sources of revenues for artists, making live concerts and festivals are almost their only and most secure way to earn revenues. By consequence, the artists cost more and more each year, but the revenues of the festival dont increase proportionally, to say the (very) least… And we can’t report the impact of the huge yearly increase in artists’ costs, directly in the attendees’ wallets because they too, suffer from an increasing cost of living and there is a limit to what they can spend for entertainment. That leaves us with a very complex equation where promoters like us must define their offer through the experience we can provide, rather than the big names on the lineup. I believe that the huge formats of more than 30-50K attendees will have more and more trouble reaching sales objectives and smaller formats will become more and more attractive and relevant. There is also a big threat for us in this switch of consumption, which is hard ticket shows where people pay to go to a concert of their favourite artists in stadiums or big arenas. More profitable for artists, less risks, better visibility, sometimes cheaper than a festival… To last in this festival industry is a day-to-day challenge, but we are used to it and prepared to face it like every year, by improving experience, safety and comfort for our beloved crowd.

This year, we successfully tested 2 major innovations. First was a very cool dispositive made for deaf and hard of hearing people who would like to experience a music festival. We provided vibrating vests for the deaf and hard-of-hearing audience to enhance their experience by allowing them to feel the music. These vests translate the sound frequencies into vibrations, enabling the users to physically sense the rhythm and beats of the music. This technology creates an immersive experience and helps everyone enjoy the event, regardless of their hearing abilities. The second innovation is on the F&B side, as we’ve introduced automatic beer dispensers in areas further away from the main bars to make it easier for festival-goers to grab a drink without having to trek all the way to a bar if they’re far from one. The idea is to improve convenience and make sure everyone can enjoy a drink without missing out on the music or having to deal with long walks.

The ‘Planète Plages’ initiative is at the heart of our sustainability efforts, focusing on three phases: year-round planning, on-site implementation, and real-time community engagement. Throughout the year, we develop strategies that we bring to life during the festival with measures like waste sorting with Aremacs, organic waste recovery with Les Alchimistes, installing water stations, and providing reusable bottles and portable ashtrays. The ‘Planète Plages’ zone allows festival-goers to participate in discussions and share ideas, making it a collaborative space where we shape the festival’s future sustainability goals together. We fully acknowledge that while we have implemented measures to reduce our environmental impact, there is still a long way to go before our actions become truly impactful and concrete. Our approach is honest and evolving; we don’t claim to have all the answers yet. We focus on experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement while being careful not to fall into greenwashing. It’s about making tangible progress, even in small steps, and recognising that sustainability is a long-term process that requires consistent and transparent efforts.

Not only we organise an event on the French Riviera, but we do it in the very heart of the city of Cannes, which is already welcoming thousands of tourists every day. Logistically, it’s a real challenge at every level… First, we have to share the public beach, as we are assembling/disassembling the whole festival while sharing the area with beachgoers, then on top of being downtown, we also have to deal with the sea, in terms of safety, security and environment as we operate partly on natural habitat. The best asset that allows us to turn these challenges into an opportunity is the fact that we are allowed to use the mythical Palais des Festivals (where Cannes Film Fest is hosted) in order to create a unique experience, that you can only see at Les Plages. Thanks to this amazing venue located right on top of the beach, we can have 5 different stages on rooftops, concert venues, terrasses, inside and out. With this amazing set-up, our crowd can go from stage to stage, discovering new artists and genres of music day and night!

Indeed, thanks to a survey we do every year, we managed to measure precisely the economic impact of the event on the local economy. We are very proud to say that last year, the presence of Les Plages generated 10M€ directly in the local businesses in 3 days. We aim to improve that number every year, in order to keep having the support from the entire region and play a major role in the local economy. In order to involve the local businesses, we try to expand the presence of the festival by organizing satellite events in the city, working with the hotel syndicate to offer to our outsiders the best package experiences, we hire local food trucks (not more than 100km from Cannes), work with the local food vendor to feed our whole team during 10 days (1700 people working day and nights…

My first inspiration was my partner Benoit Geli, who started doing events in 2004 and with whom I’ve been working for the past 14 years. I could also say that witnessing the joy on people’s faces, the absolute jubilation of the crowd connecting with the artists they listen to all year long in their car or while commuting, and the connections we create by bringing people together—whether it’s making friends, finding life partners, or even leading to families being formed—is incredibly fulfilling. One of the most rewarding experiences has been meeting a couple who told me they met at one of our events and eventually started a family together. It really gives us a sense of purpose in what we do, turning these events into a true and authentic social mission. It’s a continuation of a tradition of entertainment that has been bringing people together for centuries, but with a modern twist that makes it even more meaningful.

First, we aim to survive in this jungle/market that is going a bit crazy to be honest, that would be a huge accomplishment in itself to still be here and as strong in the future! As for Les Plages, we want to keep our unique format, like a big small festival but at the same time a small big festival, the idea is to develop and optimise that big “boutique” festival feeling and attract people from outside France more and more. When the time comes, with the right opportunities and partners, we could also make the brand live worldwide by doing declinations and residencies all over the world. For Allover, our ambition and creativity is limitless, we want to keep developing new experiences and formats by using the Riviera as our playground.