“The Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones have passed on this lawn, we are happy to reconnect with this tradition”, the Gerland stadium hosts the Inversion festival
The Gerland stadium is transformed into a show stage for a weekend on June 17 and 18, 2022 for the Inversion festival. Let the party begin !
“The Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones have passed on this lawn, we are happy to reconnect with this tradition”. Yann Robert, president of LOU rugby, is proud. On June 17 and 18, the Gerland stadium will host for the first time the Inversion festivalor Inversion Fest, for short, an urban music festival.
Another era, other headliners: the Lyonnais Sasso and the German but also – and above all – PNL, Stromae, the Black Eyed Peas or even Orelsan. Just over 40,000 people are expected.
“On D-Day, it will no longer be our players but other artists who will be on the stadium“, Yann Robert. For him, rugby players and musicians are all creators, artists! A very original comparison…
Since OL have played at the Groupama Stadium in Décines, the Stade Gerland, located in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon, has welcomed LOU rugby players.
And the installations of the Inversion Fest are impressive, it must be said. A gigantic stage has been placed on the lawn of the Gerland stadium. The grass was covered by large gray slabs.
This Wednesday, June 15, 2022, very early, a rather special ballet is activated in the stadium. Just over 500 workers are mobilized before the heat wave – and that’s quite understandable. Dressed in fluorescent yellow vests, some roll boxes to the four corners of the stadium. Others, suspended in the air, make the final adjustments at stage level. Everything must be ready for June 17, 2022 for the start of theInversion Fest.
“It’s true that it changes our view and our habits. Usually, instead of the huge stage, there are poles. It’s really less bulky”, jokes the president of the LOU. He proudly paces the stadium. And no risk for the upcoming rugby matches. ” The lawn is artificial, it is protected, thank goodness. We couldn’t have done this in the old days “, he specifies.
The festival is co-organized by Olympia Production. The little extra touch? “What is interesting is to take emerging artists at the local level and arrive at big stars up to big French and international stars. This is what makes the originality and the difference of this kind of production“, explains Christophe Sabot, president of Olympia Production.
Yann Robert assumes it. This festival is a “diversification opportunity“.”Beyond the 16 matches that we have in the year, we must develop the stadium the other 350 days with other trades“, he explains. The Stade de Gerland no longer belongs to the town hall. “It is up to us to find the economic balance to run the stadium“, adds the president of the LOU.
The diversification operation has already begun. “We are already restaurateurs, almost hoteliers and now co-producers of musical shows“, he says. And to vary the pleasures, the president of the LOU has very specific ideas: “The Gerland stadium is not only a stadium where we play rugby every fortnight but a place for exchanges and meetings. What’s better than a music festival?.
The stadium would therefore become a place of socialization and a “actor of the city“. If the success is there, the LOU is already thinking of transforming the test.
