Fête de la musique‏

Last Sunday, Lille had its annual 'Fête de la Musique‏' which is a big music festival where local (and not so local) musicians come to town and rock the fuck out. Whats really cool about all this is how its set up. First of all its completely free, and you're allowed to walk around with as much open liquor as your heart desires (woo-hoo!). Secondly, the festival isn't centered in one big square with a couple stages in the same spot. Nope, the bands are actually playing all over the Vieux Lille district (where I live), even in small side streets. Walk two minutes and you'll find anything from a rockabilly band starring a harmoica-wielding father with his two sons tearing shit up on their axes, to spider-man mask clad electro-rock bands. It really is pretty cool.

Oh, and lots of bars host bands aswell. I saw a 'psychedelic' rock band from Australia play at the Australian Bar (figures) and they were pretty good. Major hippies. It seemed that each member of the band resembled rock figures from present and past. The singer looked like Frank Zappa, bassist was Sam Roberts, guitarist was Dimebag Darrel, and the drummer was Zach de la Rocha. The resemblances stopped at their appearances however. For a psychedelic band, they sure could drum up a pretty bad-ass cover of Still D.R.E. Personally, I found it rather hilarious watching a white guy in a tie-dye t-shit yelling 'It's still DRE day Nigga, A.K. Nigga'.

Anyways, the point of all this is to say we need more of these festivals in Canada. I know we have some similar festivals, but the whole being free to basically do whatever you want is what makes this one pretty cool.