TFV Presents: Family Piknik Interview
Family Piknik is coming soon. Grab those tickets for the best family event! Check out our exclusive interview for the event!
1) How do you pick your locations for Piknik?
We used to collaborate with Montpellier’s city hall but things have slightly changed since last year, when we started working with new territories/venues, still based in our native geographic area of southern France. We always try to pick up a venue which is able to offer a great experience to our attendees and offer us good conductions in terms of production / technical aspect. So this upcoming week, we’ll be experimenting great new venues like Lunel’s futuristic arenas and Frontignan’s open air park next to the Mediterranean sea.
2) What inspired you to make this event family-friendly?
Festival’s creator, Tom Pooks, had a moto accident in 2011 which left him away from touring during months. On his hospital bed, he thought of the best way to create something new for him and he had the idea of launching a day festival for people aged 30-40 like him. He looked at what was already happening in Canada, Germany, Netherlands and decided to create this unseen concept in his own country. That’s how Family Piknik was born, creating an open-minded festival, willing to combine all generations around the best international House & Techno DJs.
3) What family-friendly activities will be at the festival?
We offer the entrance for kids aged between 6 & 14, as well as seniors aged over 55 years old. We have a kid zone on our weekend 2, with many water games and activities for kids, teens and even party people. Idea is to have everyone having fun, enjoying electronic music in an open-air park, with nice food, games and lots of smiles.
4) What’s the biggest challenge you find when curating the lineup for a festival?
It’s harder and harder to build line-ups as we need to struggle with fees inflation and international requests from all around the world. There are not so many headliners within the underground field so we try to secure good relationships with them, even if we can’t have always the same artists coming year on year. So it’s a balance we try to find between solid – famous acts, international newcomers and support acts. We have the advantage to be a music label too and our artistic director worked for a long time as a journalist so he’s aware of the trends, talents scouting… Moreover, Tom Pooks (festival’s director) is still an international DJ so he can has connexions with some artists, which can ease things up sometimes.