Lines of speakers to prevent the spread of sub-bass, scattered sensors to measure decibels, equipment arranged in a “non-standard” way to limit nuisance: in Marseille, the Marsatac festival multiplies experiments, to satisfy its audience and respect local residents and new sound regulations. “These issues concern all the festivals, it is important that we succeed in bringing together the different uses of the city in the most peaceful way possible”, summed up Saturday Béatrice Desgranges, the director of this festival, whose 25th edition ended on Sunday evening.
Since 2021, Marsatac, which has welcomed many artists from the hip-hop and electro scenes, has been settling in early summer for three days in Parc Borély, a stone’s throw from the Prado beaches, in the city of Marseille. This year, 45 artists, including Aya Nakamura, Hamza, PLK or Le Rat Luciano will take turns on one of its four stages, in front of an audience of 43,000 people in all. But from the first edition in this place, the festival “heard of complaints from local residents”, a subject which it wished to take “arms-to-body”, assures Béatrice Desgranges. In addition to these considerations, there are new regulations governing live musical performances, to regulate the levels of emergence, that is to say the sounds that impact the environment and the neighborhood.
Since last year, Marsatac, accompanied in particular by the association specializing in these issues Agi-Son, has therefore embarked on multiple experiments to try to solve the equation consisting of staying in the city and satisfying its public without too much weigh on the residents. “We have been thinking for months about how to set up the site, about the sound system to do better than last year, but it is complex to bring together the tranquility of the residents and the sound quality for the public, these are two things. quite contradictory”, summarizes the director of Agi-Son, Angélique Duchemin, qualifying the festival as “very interesting laboratory”.
This year, all the stages, except the largest, for which it is impossible due in particular to security problems, have thus been turned towards the sea, the experience consisting in “countering” the infrabasses (the most annoying waves for the neighborhood) to prevent them from spreading thanks to a line of speakers returning the same wave.
Nicolas Legendre, technical director of the festival, ensures that he is regularly contacted by the organizers of other events to share his experience. “Equipment manufacturers are not yet involved in this process, so we have to tinker,” he explains, showing, for example, huge speakers hidden by curtains on one of the festival stages. “We worked a lot with the builders to explain our approach to them, but they don’t want us to see our installations, which do not comply with what they recommend. If someone less pro reproduced it with a bad result, it would be catastrophic for their brand image.
For the local residents invited to this visit of the device, the result is not always obvious, and one of them recounts having been woken up the day before during a concert. Blame it on the wind, the organizers answer him, assuring that the gusts had forced them to modify their installations to avoid even greater nuisance. “We know very well that we will not be able to respect the sound decree, but the objective is to continue to improve”, assures Nicolas Legendre.
“It is an essential experiment for us, it is followed very closely at the national level, it is really precursory, and it is extremely useful for the whole sector”, insists Célie Caraty, of the Union of contemporary music, also a partner. experience. She recalls the “fairly complex” context, particularly economically, for independent festivals.
