Château Perché Festival: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Text: Katie Turner | Photos © Château Perché Festival, Main Photo By Benjamin Vallet

‘Leave real life behind and come into our world’, is the call to festival-goers in Eastern France from 25 to 28 July. The Château Perché Festival – a lavish four-day event with music, DJs, theatre and light shows, is now heading into its sixth incarnation and organisers are expecting 10,000 people amidst France’s oldest private arboretum.

It will be a trip to fantasyland for festival-goers, with the backdrop of an earthly paradise. “The perfect location is very much what we’re about,” says organiser Margot Giraudon, “and the Arboretum de Balaine really is one of the jewels in France’s heritage crown.” You’ll be keeping cool under the trees during the day and enjoying complete freedom in nature at night.

“In the broadest sense, our theme is ‘Create Your Paradise’,” Margot elaborates. “While you’re here, you’ll be free to live out whatever fantasy our theme conjures up for you.”

Across 11 stages with 300 artists, you’ll find DJs playing house, techno and ambient, alongside rock, punk and jazz. This year, South America also features heavily in the musical line-up. There’s theatre, light shows, video projections onto the castle at the centre of the arboretum, dancers and fire-eaters. You’ll also be able to join numerous workshops including massage, music and art.

As for the logistics: “The cows have been cleared,” laughs Margot. “There’s room for everyone to camp, with toilet facilities and showers on site. As well as plenty of parking.”

Costumes are expected and very much welcomed, this year’s day-by-day themes are: ‘The Surge of Insects’, ‘The Ephemeral Togas of Paradise’ and ‘And the Firefly Shined’. “All wide open to interpretation,” says Margot. “We’re simply the guides on this journey, we’d just like everyone to give the best of themselves, whatever that may be.”