What's La Folle Journée?

• What's La Folle Journée?
• The Unique Features
• Outline of the Facilities
• René Martin
• Naming of each facility

What is La Folle Journée?

La Folle Journée is the name of a classical music festival that was first held in 1995 in Nantes, a port town located in the northwest region of France.

It is based on a unique concept that overturns conventional thinking on classical music. Retaining its title of La Folle Journée (Days of Enthusiasm), it has developed into one of the most exciting music festivals among the numerous offerings in Europe.
Each year, the festival decides on a composer who will be the main focus of the festival. At the Cite des Congres, a convention center of the city of Nantes and the venue of the festival, concerts with an average length of 45 minutes are held in nine different locations from morning to evening, which means that about 300 concerts are held in a five-day period.
The performing artists include both young hopefuls and major names in the music world. The basic philosophy of René Martin, the artistic director of the festival is that topflight performances can be offered at low prices to develop a new generation of listeners who will support classical music in the future. The average cost of a performance ranges between 5 and 22 Euros (700-3,000 yen), which is amazingly low for concert standards.
This year, which marks the tenth anniversary of the event, about 120,000 people attended the five-day festival. About 60% of them were experiencing classical music concerts for the first time, and a large number of children attended.
The festival has also been held in Lisbon since 2000 and in Bilbao (Spain) since 2002, in both cases to great acclaim.

Themes of the festival in Nantes up to now and number of tickets sold.

	Theme	The Number of Concerts	Tickets Sold
1995	Mozart	34	18,238
1996	Beethoven	49	30,159
1997	Schubert	74	40,278
1998	Brahms	110	48,520
1999	French Music [Berlioz, Fauret, Ravel]	105	58,112
2000	Bach	202	74,518
2001	Russian Music	219	85,368
2002	Haydn & Mozart	167	82,122
2003	Italian Baroque	229	103,970
2004	Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Liszt from Romantic Music	250	113,430
2005	Beethoven and His Fellows