Essential Advice for Your First Time at Rock en Seine Festival
If you’re thinking about going to Rock en Seine Festival for the first time, or you are actually going, you need my tried and tested advice in your life.
I went to Rock en Seine Festival for the first time last year. I’d had my eye on it for the last few years thanks to the cool line ups and unique location. The clue’s in the name but Rock en Seine Festival is located on the River Seine, in Paris. It’s held in the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud – a park in the west of Paris designed by André Le Nôtre, the same guy who did the Palace of Versailles.
Yep, nice location.
The vibe at Rock en Seine felt very different to UK festivals. It was a classy event – I didn’t see anyone drunk, there was no glitter hair or even neon face paint. It’s a rock festival with elegant Parisian style.
Highlights
Seeing SUM41 was pretty funny. Memories of being a teenager dancing at our local rock club to Fat Lip came to mind. I stood at the front waiting for them to come on to relive my love, but of course as soon as they came on stage I remembered I wasn’t a teenager any more and it looked like everyone who’d just surged into me was. I gave up my prime position as it turned into mosh pit. \
Not for me. Not any more.
I watched the rest of the (awesome – how has Derek not aged?) show from the grassy mount. That was one of the coolest things about Rock en Seine – the way they’ve positioned the main stage means there’s a huge hill on the side – prime spot for just sitting and admiring the show.
And then Foals playing Spanish Sahara was another definite highlight. Gawd, that song is amazing. If you can’t stand the wobbly camera on the clip above I’d recommend you check the tune out on Spotify. Love it.
Oh, and one last one. We were right at the front for Bastille and then the lead singer, Dan Smith, came out into the crowd and everyone went nuts. He was singing Pompeii, the sun was out, we’d had a few beers and life was good.