French pop music rarely reaches mainstream audiences in Australia. When it does break through, though, there鈥檚 a fair chance that Jean-Fran莽ois Ponthieux has had something to do with it. As founder of music festival So Frenchy So Chic, Ponthieux brings French artists to Australia for a day that is less Splendour in the Grass and more picnic on the grass. Audiences remember Provencal flower arrangements, charcuterie hampers and champagne scored by French pop, but as all event creators know: success doesn鈥檛 happen overnight.
The beginnings of a festival
In 2005, before So Frenchy was a festival, Ponthieux was the marketing manager for record label Filter Music, commissioning compilations of French pop.
鈥淚nitially the idea was to showcase contemporary French music,鈥� Ponthieux says. 鈥淚n Australia, everyone knew the French Touch, which was electronic music, everyone knew Serge Gainsbourg and Edith Piaf, which is the old school, but there was a gap for contemporary French music.鈥�
The first So Frenchy So Chic album sold 15,000 copies and in 2006 Ponthieux found a market beyond the Francophiles. 鈥淚 serviced one song to Triple J which was Camille with the song Ta Douleur and it became the most requested song on Triple J for about three months,鈥� Ponthieux says. Then in 2007, he was presented with an opportunity to put on a concert at the Arts Centre in Melbourne as part of a program of culturally diverse music.
鈥淲e sold out Hamer Hall,鈥� Ponthieux says. 鈥淭hat was my first dip into organising concerts and I got hooked on it because before that I was just putting records in record shops, which is fine, but there鈥檚 no human factor there. When you see 2000 people in a room reacting in front of an artist and you鈥檝e organised that, it鈥檚 a magnificent high.鈥�
Following the Hamer Hall success, Ponthieux organised shows around Australia for French artists, but the model wasn鈥檛 100% right for the market. 鈥淲e did some at the Prince, at the Metro,鈥� says Ponthieux. 鈥淚 did that for two or three years but I realised that people that were coming to the gigs were a bit older – professionals that probably didn鈥檛 want to be in a dark room on a Thursday evening. The idea of organising a picnic on the grass came from that.鈥�
How So Frenchy So Chic comes together
Since 2012, So Frenchy So Chic has been a fully fledged festival. Ponthieux鈥檚 persistence and belief in French music has transformed him into a festival director, but he relies on a few key players to put the whole thing together. 鈥淭he festival is pretty much me and a production manager and then I have a team that comes on board as the festival approaches,鈥� Ponthieux says. 鈥淚鈥檝e got a bar manager that I鈥檝e been working with for 8 years, there鈥檚 a person curating all the food stalls. It鈥檚 a micro team, a very efficient team.鈥�
About eight months out from the date of the festival, Ponthieux and his small team get to work. 鈥淚 first start working on sponsorships and lineups and then I start working with the agency on the graphic design on all the assets at launch,鈥� says Ponthieux. 鈥淭hen I start getting into the details of the organisation, getting all the permits from the council, the liquor licences and start getting into the planning of the actual day – all the schedules, the deliveries.鈥�
When it comes time for the festival, Ponthieux heeds his own advice: be prepared. 鈥淭he objective is that when you start bumping the festival, be as relaxed as possible because the shit鈥檚 going to hit the fan, that鈥檚 for sure. Every year something happens, but if you鈥檙e relaxed and you鈥檝e done your job preparing as best you can, then you can deal with problems very easily. I say to my team there鈥檚 no problems, there鈥檚 only solutions. You have to shift the software in your head to make sure you鈥檙e solution-based, not problem-based.鈥�
Ponthieux says that solutions like those provided by 91制片厂 have been invaluable when things go pear shaped. 鈥淔or the last years of Covid we had some shows that were postponed and cancelled, we had to do lots of refunds,鈥� Ponthieux says. 鈥淚t was very easy to do and I think it鈥檚 important because the way you see how good a ticketing platform is is when you have problems and when you need to do bulk refunds and things like that, and it worked really well. I think it鈥檚 a bulletproof platform.鈥�
Learning lessons and celebrating victories
With a decade of festival experience under his belt, Ponthieux has seen just about everything. From running out of cash the first year (鈥淚 had to send someone to the casino to get five grand of change because the banks were closed鈥�) to artists on cancelled flights, issues are simply unavoidable.
鈥淭here was a year where I was hiring a college and the groundsman forgot to grow the grass on the grounds so basically the site looked like a potato field,鈥� Ponthieux says. 鈥淚 spent my Christmas break looking for fake grass and I sent my spies every week to see how the grass is growing. We thought we were okay a week out and so I cancelled the fake grass and then as we were bumping in Sydney got hit by the biggest storm in 20 years. The day before the festival the site was like a mud pit. I ordered 15 grand of fake grass plus we redesigned the layout of the site to use the areas where the grass was good. That was probably one of our best events that year in Sydney but we had to move considerable things for it to happen and happen well.鈥�
Ponthieux knows, though, that the hard times just balance the good – and there have been plenty of highlights over the years. 鈥淥ne of my favourites was 2019,鈥� Ponthieux says. 鈥淚t was just after the Me Too movement and we decided to do a 100% female lineup. I didn鈥檛 want to do it for a cliche, just going on the bandwagon. We always had a very strong female component in our lineup and in the audience, but that year I wanted to make a mark. We brought some wonderful artists – Camille and then there was Yelle which is an electropop outfit that I鈥檇 been wanting to get for so many years and she finally came. Then there was another person, Clara Luciani who is a number 1 artist in France and she was just starting at the time. What was interesting was the trifecta of very talented artists and a beautiful day. We were doing Adelaide and Sydney and Melbourne at the time. It was probably my best festival experience.鈥�
So Frenchy So Chic returns to Melbourne and Sydney in 2023. Find tickets for your city here.
