Our man in Marciac - part one

As I waited at the bus stop in Tarbes on Thursday for the one bus a day to Marciac, more and more people gathered looking suspiciously like fellow volunteers at the jazz festival. The telltale sign seemed to be a Decathlon tent under one arm and something guitar-shaped under the other, and even if I didn't have the latter, my bike in its travel bag made for a suitable substitute (it has proved to be an excellent conversation starter throughout my trip so far...), and we were soon all chatting together. Most of them were students at universities across France - some studying music, but many studying other subjects too - and all but one of us first-time volunteers at Marciac. Mars, for whom this is the fifth festival he's been a volunteer at, was thus our much-needed guide to help us find the Camping des bénévoles (a short walk away from the centre and *almost* out of earshot of the main stage) once arrived in Marciac. Our first encounter with French bureaucracy ensued: no, we couldn't give the €30 (to cover our 2-week stay at the campsite) to the ladies at the campsite, and yes, we were going to have to walk back into the town to pay at the festival HQ, then get a signature to prove we had done so, then take that signature and show it to the ladies back at the campsite who would then let us pitch up... 

Blue sky: on the walk from the campsite to the town (the huge white chapiteau where the evening concerts take place is just visible through the trees on the left)

Started up by a group of local residents in 1978, Jazz in Marciac has grown into an internationally renowned festival, but has remained in its original location, a small town/large village in the Gers, an hour or so's drive away from any major civilisation or train line. It nevertheless attracts huge audiences - every seat in the chapiteau was occupied on Sunday evening for Melody Gardot, Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp, which makes 6,000 tickets sold. Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp? Jazz? Well, quite... The first few days of the festival this year seem to have been given over to artists who are not so jazzy but nevertheless bring in the crowds - James Blunt, who performed on Monday night, appears to have quite the following in France, perhaps thanks to his proficiency in Franglais when addressing the audience between songs... Anyway, the combination of Christian Sands, Herbie Hancock, Rhoda Scott and Ibrahim Maalouf over the past two nights has convinced me that the festival gets more and more jazzy from here on in. 

Ibrahim Maalouf performs to a packed chapiteau

Volunteers are deployed across the festival, from backstage to the information stands, and from cleaning the toilets (not as bad as it sounds by all accounts, as people are very generous with their tips!) to scanning people's tickets as they arrive for the evening concerts. I am in a team of twenty or so ushers (all of a similar age), who help people find their seats in the chapiteau (quite a task when there are 6,000 of them) and sell ice creams in the interval between the two artists each evening. Once everyone is seated, we're free to enjoy the concerts, and once in a while the team leaders will even give us une glace to enjoy during the second half - pas mal, hein! 

So many fields of sunflowers around Marciac 

Our work doesn't start until 7:30 each evening, which means that we're free for the rest of the day to listen to the festival bis (the off festival) in the square, enjoy the three free French meals a day we're entitled to in the cantine des bénévoles (miam miam!), explore the surrounding area by foot or by bike, or just relax in the shade and listen to a jam which will inevitably be going on somewhere in your vicinity. 

An Estonian jazz trio playing on the 'festival bis' stage

Funny moments so far have included a pianist, Chilly Gonzales, attempting to crowdsurf, evidently without being pre-warned about the average age of the audience (yes, they did drop him...several times...) and a particularly generous patron of our ice cream stand who wanted two of each flavour (10 ice creams in total), presumably to distribute to the lucky audience members in his vicinity. Miko (the French version of Wall's ice cream), whose t-shirts we wear to sell our magnums, must be making quite a packet out of all this...

The risk of storms tonight was announced at breakfast this morning - time to put my tent's waterproofing to the test!

Marciac by day...

...and Marciac by night

Top tips for fitting in with the French crowd:
Bon appétit ? More like Bon app !
À tout à l'heure ? More like À toute ! or if you want to be really cool then it's bye bye with a thick French accent 😎

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