The Paléo Festival de Nyon, usually just called Paléo, started in a small way in 1976 as the Nyon Folk Festival. It was differently located, near the Lake Geneva and had only two stages. But today it is the second biggest open-air music festival in mainland Europe, after the Sziget Festival. Today this event has grown to include internationally known artists. It has also moved towards the plaine de L'Asse, accessible either by walking, bus or the Chemin de fer Nyon-St-Cergue-Morez narrow-gauge railway.
The festival lasts six end-July days, from Tuesday to Sunday and the final main stage concert is preceded by a great firework display with music.
Since its start, 3.5 million spectators and 2500 artists have been part of the Paléo Festival (as of the 2005 edition).
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The Paléo features 6 stages:
Since 2003, the Paléo has introduced Le Village du Monde (The World Village) section. Its a whole new space reserved for an invited region of the world. This place offers the region's culture and food. It also includes Le Dôme which shows only artists from the invited region.
225,000 visitors participated to the 2007 edition (+3'800 staff).
Tickets can be purchased on the Paléo Website. Special offers are available usually as early as November of the year preceding the next Paléo festival with discounted all-week passes. Later in Spring the official program is published and the second, slightly less discounted tickets are available. They are often sold-out very quickly. In the months preceding the festival more tickets are sold at full price.
To fight black market ticket-sale, 1500 one-day tickets are held-up to be sold the same day as their validity date and can be purchased online (to be printed by the buyer).
The lineup used to be revealed on a late-April Wednesday at noon, following which, both tickets and passes would sell out within days. From the 2008 edition onwards, the lineup is unveiled one week prior to the sale, giving people plenty of time to make up their mind and thus rushing them online to get their tickets one week later. In 2009, all 220,000 tickets and passes were sold within a record 2 and half hours.
As of the 2006 edition, the hourly buses that maitainted late-night service have been replaced by special trains on the standard CFF network. Trains run approximately every two hours. Carsharing facilities are also available.
Invited artists:
For a full list see the 1997 history.
Invited artists:
For a full list see the 1998 history.
Invited artists:
For a full list see the 1999 history.
Invited artists:
For a full list see the 2000 history.
Invited artists:
For a full list see the 2001 history.
Invited artists:
Invited artists:
For a full list see the 2003 history.
This year saw the first Village du Monde. Africa was invited with Cameroon, Nigeria and other countries from that continent.
Invited artists:
Latin America was invited at the Village du Monde. Specifically Venezuela, Colombia, Equator, Peru and Mexico among others.
In 2005, the following world-renowned artists participated at the Paléo (among many others):
That year was considered very successful with a cool but clear weather for most the week (except some short showers on Sunday).
Asia was the region invited to the Village du Monde including China, Tibet, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.
Paléo took place from the 18th until the 23rd of July 2006 with the following artists:
Eastern Europe hosted the Village du Monde.
And REM headlining the Sunday night.
2009 edition of Paléo took place from the 21 to 26 July 2009. Below list includes some of the musicians who performed during the concert:
India was the region invited to the Village du Monde
In 2010, the festival was held from July 20 to July the 24th. Some of the performing artists included:
The Motto for the Village du Monde was, referring to the World Cup 2010, Africa.
The 2011 edition of the Paléo Festival took place from Tuesday, July the 19th to Sunday, July the 24th. The following list includes some of the acts that were confirmed on the 5th of April:
The Motto for the Village du Monde is Caribbean.
For the full list of performing artists, visit the official website.