"A requirement for absolute quality"the Internationales de la Guitare have opened their ticket office

You took over the management of the Guitar Internationals following the death of its historic founder, Talaat El Singaby. Is meeting this challenge complex?

Pauline Lépinay: It’s complex in the sense that we carry a heavy heritage and an important challenge. But we are convinced that we will get there. David has been there for 20 years and me for 15 years; we have worked alongside Talaat all these years. We are starting this new chapter with his ideas, but also with ours to complete this magnificent project.

David Salançon: It is above all a great responsibility towards our public who have followed us for 30 years. We are ultra-motivated to breathe new momentum and new energy into the festival.

Among the new features, you are launching an “Off” festival. What is its objective and what locations have you chosen?

PL: Our priority was to recreate a connection with the public through more intimate formats and to reinvest the cultural places of Montpellier. We sometimes tended to move away from urban space. This “Off” allows us to offer more informal local meetings. We have thus refocused the “In” festival over two weeks and we are offering a preview with concerts, meetings and exhibitions. Partner places immediately followed us: the third place La Restanque, the Ground Zero record store and Milleformes for a musical awareness program dedicated to very young audiences (0-6 years old). We are also investing in café-concerts like Le Salon, which we had somewhat deserted. The idea is to find conviviality again.

DS: This also allows us to develop free services, which is essential for us. “Off” increases the total number of events and allows us to highlight the local scene.

100% feminine and international “24 Hours”

The unmissable “24 Hours” weekend offers this year an exclusively female program. Is it a militant choice in the face of a musical universe that is often very masculine?

DS: We wanted to integrate more women into the general programming, but for the “24 Hours”, the concept emerged naturally through our artistic favorites. It was while building the event that we realized that all the projects selected were led by women, and we decided to push the idea to the end. Even more than 100% feminine, it is a profoundly international edition: we welcome artists from Spain, England, Argentina, Mali and Cameroon.

Your wide-range programming ranges from the post-punk of Asteréotypie to the global music of Angélique Kidjo, via the flamenco of RocÃo Márquez. Is it easy to keep the common thread of the guitar in the middle of all these styles?

DS: Yes, because this is the historical guideline of the festival: representing all styles, but always with a demand for absolute quality. When we start on a blank page, the puzzle gradually falls into place between classicism and innovation. We avoid the outbidding of exclusive headliners. We want our concerts to remain financially accessible thanks to a controlled pricing policy. This year, we have three major events at the Opéra-Comédie: Angélique Kidjo, Stephan Eicher and our creative project.

Tell us about this special evening with guitarist Yamandou Costa at the Opéra-Comédie.

DS: He is one of the greatest guitarists in the world and his previous visits with us have been memorable. He gathered around him Thibaut Garcia, Antoine Boyer and the immense Russian classical guitarist Vera Danilina. What is magical is the meeting of their universes: Antoine Boyer comes from experimental gypsy jazz, Thibaut Garcia shakes up the codes of classical guitar, Vera Danilina embodies the great classical tradition and Yamandou masters Brazilian music in the broad sense. The only instruction we gave them is to have fun and provide a joyful and total moment.

Nicole Bigas, the president of the association which manages the Guitar Internationals, was fined after several anomalies revealed by the regional chamber of accounts over the period 2018-2022. Are there any changes in your management?

DS: Obviously, we work with our own methods. We want to create a new dynamic; it’s a new beginning. These reproaches were aimed at a former management which unfortunately is no longer there to express itself. Today, our line of conduct is clear: total transparency and honesty in everything we do.

PL: We do the same things, but differently. We focus on transparency and sobriety. The team is tighter, our offices are smaller. We are carrying out the project as we see fit in order to turn the page. Nicole Bigas, who takes on a voluntary role, has had to account for administrative shortcomings and a lack of formality, but this has never tainted the associative commitment or the integrity of the project.