Video from Worldwide Festival at Sete 2007

I've got to get myself to this Festival one year.....it looks amazing.

In the meantime, here's a review from Gilles Peterson on the festival this year....

WF SETE 08 - THE AFTERMATH

"9.25am Monday - RyanAir back to Stanstead. Tired but still buzzing. It all started last Wednesday - early St Pancras to Paris and down super fast to Sete - 320 kmh - very impressive - apparently (according to Matsuura san) the new magnetic bullet train will beat the SNCF's finest!

All I can say is 'this is the best way to travel' - France flew by. Sete appeared - let the festivities begin! first night with crew and a few artists eating brochettes opposite 'Bahia' bar on the Corniche - nicely eighties - Simbad excited - duck and fig combination with extra mustard strong. Good vibes all round. Not too late - checking weather - might rain, might not - would be big drama as nowhere indoors - maybe take all back to Montpellier?

Fortunately 'Le Temps' was as perfect as we could have hoped - brilliant sunsets - not too hot - absolutely spot on.

Did it go smoothly? No - lesson one: control personal partying at own festival. I did - lesson learnt last year.

What went wrong then?

Thursday - Benga's name not on Easy Jet check in list - no sir you may not board - can you believe that shit? not his fault - just some computer fuck up at 4.30 am - poor sod - rebook via Paris - lands at 10.30 pm - phew.

Friday - Sebastien Tellier's band arrive but not him - still in his hotel room in Oslo somewhere - not well at all - everyone worried. fair enough - hope he's ok - too late to book replacement - Camille would have been good - her brother plays bass with Tellier - she's touring somewhere tonight though. Bit hardcore as he was the headline - oh well - he's done it twice before so the Brits won't be too bothered - resolve crisis by putting Toshio Matsuura centre stage in Kimono
playing Fumio Itabashi songs!

Saturday - 9.30 am call - Cinematic Orc's bus broken down outside Paris - won't be able to make soundcheck - waiting for replacement vehicle. At least they're in France I suppose.

Sunday - mc Sole from Anticon - very good but very wrong on the beach at midnight with everyone in closing party mode. Give him half hour (of 90 min set) before pulling. Pissed off rapper - listen mate - sometimes you just have to make your shit work in 6 tunes - he'll learn - good though. Overall punter stress - we should have organized bus shuttle from Theatre de la Mer to beach spot - a long 45 mins by foot - ouch!

Now the good bits!

This was one of the best things I've ever been involved with - in fact I'm almost resigned to stopping now as I can't imagine bettering these last 4 days.
A perfect gathering of different nationalities inside a beautiful southern french town in the early summer - all with a love of good music - it worked! 40% Brit/40% French with the rest Austrian/Italian/Dutch/German/Croatian etc etc... yes Gigi was there too! all the way from Hong Kong - as were Don and the Kinemat gang from Singapore.

I don't really want to break it all down fully - I'm sure others will do that. but from the point of view of variety and relevance I think we got it right this year. Sound and light wise - perfect - dj wise - perfect (Leftoo, Garfld, BPM, Toshio, Pilooski all nailed it). Sundae on the beach yesterday absolutely floored me - Crown Heights Affair - Dreamin a Dream never souded better! live wise - Little Dragon amazing - Breakestra - wow - I just didn't know how good they were live - I mean the albums are good and all that but I now know for sure why
their shows are legendary - their drummer was bugging out - great selections too - Express yourself - yeh - and when Miles got on the Bass and rocked out with those Tribe cuts .... I was feeling that! great to hear Choklate on the vox too - brilliant feel - easy!

My highlight though was another I hadn't seen before - Pascal Comelade - Oh my God - this was the piece I
knew existed in music but hadn't found yet - that little connector between Roland Kirk, Robert Wyatt and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra - all in a toy shop with a little oriental angst thrown in - I couldn't
believe it, sun dropping as the amphitheatre audience rose to give this maestro a proper standing ovation - Pascal is French Catalan and has released over 20 albums - there's even a Japanese band that only perform his original compositions - they're called the Pascals! His biggest fan is PJ Harvey and his band look like 8 French Tom Waits! - WHERE HAVE I BEEN? all that I know is that this show moved me big time - and what a prep for the Cinematics - Whooosh! the setting in the Theatre de la Mer is quite simply my favorite setting in the world - performers backdropped by an ocean interrupted only by curious ships passing through the night - this was Cinematic Bliss and the Orchestra delivered the ultimate score!

Clubbing wise I thought the Base Nautique sounded unbelievable this weekend - proper Funktion 1 - no noise restrictions - what more do you need apart from killer light show and fake snow on the Saturday night as Garnier began his set - 'Il neige ce soir!' - the crowd went berzerk!! Whether Roots Manuva jamming on Benga, Westbeech doing an accapella at 4am of
"sitting on the dock of the Bay' (ridiculous!) or quite simply the 'Greatest Ever' warm up set for Laurent by Henrik Schwarz - the venue is the perfect cross between old school rave and new school art installation! brilliant. And of course who was the DJ I had to get to headline Saturday night? It had to be Garnier - the energy in the 1500 plus crowd was quite simply 'anticipation gold' and watching him thoughout his full 5 hours wiggling his bum till sunrise filled me with constant smiles - these nights don't come round everyday and I was gonna enjoy this one! I'm almost home now - back to Stokey and a hectic week awaits (very bad planning mister P!) - but you know what? I can't wait for next year already!" Gilles Peterson (From the WWF Website)

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