This is the second article of the « My home town Clermont-Ferrand, a city of… » series. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet I advise you to read it first, but hey if you want to break the codes and start in the middle you do you (I’ll never know) !
I told you about the amazing landscapes, but it is far from being the only cool stuff about Clermont. It also is a city with many cultural events, and it’s even running for the European Capital of Culture 2028 title (here is the official website if you want to have a look: https://www.clermont2028.eu/).
You may have heard about the « Festival du court-métrage », or rather the International Short Film Festival, the world’s largest film festival dedicated to short films, and the second largest film festival in France after Cannes in terms of audience and professional presence. Well, it all takes place in Clermont. To give you an idea of how big it is, the 2017 edition recorded more than 160,000 entries and welcomed more than 3,500 professionals.
Born in 1982, the International Short Film Festival now gathers spectators, filmmakers and figures of the film industry from all over the world. It actually all started in 1979, when Clermont University Film Society organised a Short Film Week. It became an annual event, and in 1982 the Festival became competitive, with a jury attributing awards to films selected from the recent French short film production. International films were shown in special programs highlighting a particular theme, genre, country or region of the world. There are three competition categories : International, National and Labo, each being evaluated by a different jury. The Festival features many different awards titles, and therefore many juries, such as the Student Jury, the National Press Jury, the Adobe Jury (assessing special effects)… the audience also has its own award, the Public Award, selecting the winning short film for each of the three categories. Each year, the Festival focuses on a country and a theme that are to be brought to the spotlight : events such as exhibitions, workshops and conferences around the honoured country and topic are organised in addition to the screenings. For the 42nd International Short Film Festival of 2020 that took place from the 31st January to 8th February, the focus was on Poland and on the rural world.
It’s a festival I attend every year since my early childhood (they have a children program), so it felt quite weird to miss it this year, as I was back to Cardiff since the beginning of January. I highly recommend it though, if you ever have the chance to go to Clermont the International Short Film Festival is definitely something you’ve got to see.
Clermont also does have a really great music scene : « La Coopérative de Mai » – or as everybody calls it, « la Coopé ». Inaugurated on March 7, 2000 with a performance by Rita Mitsouko, it is made of two show rooms : the smaller one is called The Club, but everybody calls it « la Petite Coopé », and can accommodate around 500 people – its scene is 35m2 . I actually saw my first real concert ever in this room ! It was a Eugene McGuinness concert, a British singer-songwriter whose songs I still listen to six years after. The room was quite small, but I will never forget how I felt there. It was just magical, and it has actually forged my love for concerts !
The bigger room is the main one, it has a 210 m2 scene, and can accomodate 1500 persons. If I remember correctly, the first gig I saw there was the metal band Anthrax – my first headbanging and « wall of death » !! I was fearless (or reckless) at the time, and just threw my tiny petite body right the middle of a full-of-huge-scary- guys-with-long-hair pit. Needless to say that I went home with a few bruises, but the scary dudes were teddy bears really, they put me up on my feet countless times. 🤘
Among the many events happening there, the most famous is the Europavox festival, a 3-days festival gathering many well-known artists. Many Thursday nights (Thursday is the « student party day » in Clermont), you can go to the Coopé and enjoy the programme for free, it’s the « Afterworks ». On a Thursday night you’ll mainly find students there, as we are all broke and dying to go to concerts for free after our cheap pasta meal !
And if you are in Clermont in spring, don’t miss the God Save Clermont week ! Described as Clermont’s most British week of the year, each night this festival welcomes a British rock band in a different venue. First parts are ensured by local artists; and this is part of what I love about this city : it really supports the development and growth of local performers ! At the Coopé, approximately once a month they organise a free « Showcase », where 6 artists or bands have the opportunity to play for 30 minutes each. I didn’t really know it existed before, but I have recently seen that one of my old friend from school performed there last month (and I am impressed !). I’ll definitely attend the next ones when I’m back !
Clermont-Ferrand also draws of big part of its identity in the richness of its historical heritage, with many sites classified as « Monuments Historiques ».
The Notre-Dame-du-Port basilica is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the city really engages with the European Heritage Days, by granting the access to iconic and unusual venues – some of which are normally closed to the public.
Our cathedral is also quite striking ! The region is known for its many pits of Volvic lava stone (about that, check Part 1 to know more if you haven’t already ! 😉 ), which colour can go from grey to black shades. The cathedral, along with many other buildings, is made of Volvic stone, and that gives her a very noticeable dark colour, almost black. It also has very nice rose windows, I remember being completely amazed by the coloured lights reflecting on the floor slabs when I was a kid. It is definitely worth having a look !
So yeah, Clermont definitely has some culture to offer 😌 Come and see !
A French girl in Cardiff 