For their 30th anniversary, Florida and ADEM announce a new season with varied genres and styles, remaining faithful to the spirit of openness of the Agen venue.
“It’s a special season before we begin Florida’s fourth decade as a current music venue,” announces director Florent Beneteau. Thirty years ago, the Association for the Development of Musical Expression – (Adem) took the reins of the Agen venue which will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2024. Thirty years later, “there is a bubbling that crosses time and generations without rusting,” notes Florent Beneteau, delighted. And for this anniversary season, the Florida is offering evenings both outside and within the walls of 95, boulevard du Président-Carnot.
And it is precisely outside the walls that Florida wants to launch its season on September 16, at the Lou Cornal farm in Saint-Pierre-de-Clairac. “Like all September seasons when the weather permits,” underlines Florent Beneteau, the evening having had to be moved to the Florida room the last two years. For this first evening of September, Florent Beneteau is happy to present the group Komodrag and the Mounodor. “It’s a Breton UFO that we discovered a few years ago in Rennes. There are seven of them on stage, it’s the first time we’ve had such a large group at Lou Cornal.” Kosmopilot and its electronic mixes will complete the opening night.
To start autumn “with tranquility”, Florida offers this bucolic outing, this concert in the countryside with a goat and a pig and with the possibility of eating farm products on site. Free on-site camping is even available.
A season with all styles and for all tastes
Maintaining the same desire for openness as when it began in 1993, Florida offers a season rich in musical genres and styles. A season marked above all by the arrival of Bertrand Belin on October 6, a first in Lot-et-Garonne. “We’ve been trying to get him to come for a while,” recognizes Florent Beneteau, delighted to welcome the multifaceted artist, “not very present in the media but who fills rooms.” And the spectators are not mistaken, the tickets for the concert are going very quickly. Another nugget of the season, the musician Lucie Antunes, who shared the bill with Billie Eilish during the 2023 edition of “Rock en Seine”, will be in Agen on December 8 for the last evening of the year. To “warm up” the public before its two artists, Florida continues to bet on “local driving forces”, assures Florent Beneteau. Thus, the Agen duo O’O will open for Lucie Antunes and the Tarn-et-Garonne group Basse Fidélité will open for Bertrand Belin.
After its two pop and French song evenings, two new styles are offered on November 4 and 24 with “two luxury sets”, assures the director. A first “Belgian and rock” set on November 4 with the arrival of It It Anita and The Gru Gru. A second folk set with The Healthy boy vs Terglio but above all the return to Lot-et-Garonne of Matt Elliott. The British musician will present his show prepared last February at Florida.
A new season once again promising, also with this evening of October 14 at the Albret de Nérac space where the artists Ladaniva and Natalia Doco will offer a concert of Balkan pop and South American folk. The Agen venue of course continues to offer many other activities with open stages and afterworks which resume in September (respectively on the 22nd and 28th). Classes will resume in October.