The festival will be the event of the year in France for this musical genre, and this time will take place without constraints, without masks, with a first evening, Friday April 8, devoted to concerts. You will even be asked to shake yourself up and show your enthusiasm. This is what one of the headliners of these two days wishes, the couple of dancers bringing together Sakiko Oishi and Brice Rouchet who proposes “Yürei”, highlighted by Olivier Bauer and completed by Tioneb at the beat box. “This creation will follow the common thread of phantasmagoria (etymologically “the art of making ghosts speak in public”) of Japanese yürei and the myth of Petrushka”, we recall at Florida. A show in its own right, visual and rhythmic, which shows a growing emancipation of beatbox from its hip-hop origins.
Pe4enketa et Skiller.
” South West “
Two Bulgarian artists will introduce this first scene, with Skiller (2012 world champion), ready to draw on all the right influences and adept at various collaborations, with Lumidee, Fhaggy or Outlandish. Fellow countrywoman Pe4enkata, who got her start in piano, singing and opera, also squeezed the podiums, clinching the women’s world title in 2012.
Hand to hand
The ritual of the battles brings together thousands of Internet users at each edition.
” South West “
The mano a mano battles will take place the next day, Saturday April 9, pitting competitors from eight countries and four continents against each other: Beatmeda (Colombia), MixFx (Portugal), DoubleM (Morocco) and Piratheeban (Singapore). Four other participants also won their “wildcards” for this beatbox battle: Jewow (Portugal), FootboxG (Belgium), Match (United States) and JP (Malaysia).
“This year, the focus is on a professional solo beatbox battle starting in the top 8. The format is now clearly defined: five judges, no overtime, quarter-finals with our special format 1 round per battle, 2 victories to advance, 1 defeat is not fatal but 2 defeats and it’s over…”, we warn in Florida. We can follow these battles on the Internet channel Swissbeatbox. The thousands of views of previous editions confirm that this aura is not neutral for the city of Agen, with Florida acting as an amplifier.
Finally, the festival has also taken over the city, such as Skiller & Pe4enkata for a linguistic meeting at Baudre high school, or the Colombian beatboxer Beatmeda at the prison, not to mention the interventions of the “local stage”, Tioneb, within various structures.