Musilac

Musilac is the July of pop, rock and rap on the esplanade of Lake Bourget, in Aix-les-Bains, between the water and the mountains, near the mouth of the Sierroz. Rémi Perrier directs it. The two large stages are called Lac and Montagne. The third, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, is the one that used to be called Korner. The preface falls at the Théâtre de Verdure. In July 2026 that preface was Wednesday the 8th, with Gasoline, FAV, Ricci o and Méli Momes, and the four large days ran from the 9th to the 12th. Jérôme Michoux, of Hands UP Electro, writes that people went into the water before the concerts and that a breeze came in at sunset. The official campsite, about twenty minutes on foot, faces the shore and holds nearly 3,000 people. There is a bicycle park, free, watched and with no booking.

The name as it stands starts in 2002. Before that, in 2000, the festival committee and the MJC, with Thierry Martinet and Daniel Ginet, built Musikolac on a nearby car park. Rémi Perrier, from Grenoble, and Roland Zennaro, from Annecy, remake it on the esplanade, with mayor Dominique Dord. The history page says gigantism will never be part of its nature, and it writes «gênes» where «gènes» belongs. Wikipedia puts 25,000 to 30,000 people a night. Michoux counts more than 110,000 across the four days of 2026, against about 80,000 in 2025. ODS Radio quotes the organizers, the day after: more than 110,000. Sound of Brit calls 2024 the twenty-second. Le Dauphiné and Esprit Festivalier call it the twenty-first. Hands UP calls 2025 the twenty-second. The counts stay side by side.

The food Michoux notes across those four days: the Savoyard bowl at Alain Michel's stall, Alpina's croziflette, Dealer de Cheese burgers, Argentine barbecue, tex-mex, falafel and pizza. For drinks, the 1664 pub, a Coca-Cola stall, a mojito tent, Ricard and Cointreau, and glasses with no alcohol. On Thursday the 9th, Malaka, two sisters, winners of the regional tremplin, open the path. Last Train takes an intense stretch, with no closed title in the review. Feu! Chatterton takes Montagne while the Katy Perry set is built on Lac. She changes costumes, carries the score of France against Morocco and celebrates the win on Roar. Yelle marks twenty years of work on Montagne, with no title in Michoux's text. Sam Quealy closes that night on Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, hyperpop, with the album Jawbreaker already out.

On Friday the 10th, Dabeull Live Band puts the funk on Montagne, with extra players and instruments Michoux calls already rare in the productions of now. Orelsan opens with a sequence made for that shore, and the show is tied to his recent album and to the film Yoroï. A medley runs through titles since 2009. The review does not fix which ones. Lost Frequencies closes Montagne between club and Ibiza house, again with no single title. LB aka LABAT, live, climbs from house to hard house and turns Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes into an open-air club. Saturday the 11th had been sold out for months from the moment Gorillaz were announced. Jamiroquai plays Little L, Canned Heat, Cosmic Girl and Love Foolosophy. Jay Kay dances and talks to the room. Damon Albarn arrives with many players. Jamie Hewlett's animations run on the screens. The room breaks open on Feel Good Inc. and on Clint Eastwood.

On Sunday the 12th, Sébastien Martinez Cerisier, in Esprit Festivalier, writes 38 degrees on Rilès's stretch: the singer rises into the sky of the site and drops at once, a little more than an hour. Charlotte Cardin, on Lac, opens in English with Take me Back and The Way We Touch. She recalls her first date here, in 2018, already on Montagne. Juliette Armanet and Clara Luciani had started on the Korner. Ensemble is sung with two of her players. Bigflo & Oli step onto Musilac for the first time, nearly an hour and a half, they let the crowd carry them and they play off Katy Perry having been there three days earlier. The official bill writes 47Ter. Martinez Cerisier writes 47 Ter. Cassius, now with Boombass, closes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Philippe Zdar, of the duo, was from Aix-les-Bains and died on 19 June 2019. The song with which Martinez Cerisier closes his review is I <3 U SO. In 2024, the bill puts Busy P b2b Boys Noize on the close of Lac. Esprit writes Boyz Noise and says they took up that same song.

What stays heard, that July, is Roar, Little L, Feel Good Inc. and I <3 U SO. What the reviews already point to for a later July is not copied: those digits do not enter here. The July on the esplanade is the one Michoux and Martinez Cerisier already closed.