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Festival-goers 182
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358543117 820398399816353 1266905889364813531 N

3o8a3653

Festival-goers 182
|

358543117 820398399816353 1266905889364813531 N
Thibault is part of the Décapadiot organisation. René Manenti, Daniel Chanso and Synthia Paquin are volunteers.
D: I’ve been a cook at the festival for two years now, or more precisely I’ve been in charge of the chips! And it’s going really well, the organisation’s going really well!
R: This will be my third year at the bar.
S: I’ve also been a volunteer for three years and I’m still at the bar.
D: You have to be particularly available, and the most important thing is to use that availability for the benefit of the festival, even if it’s only for an hour a day. You’ll always find something to do, a set-up to do, a brush stroke to give. The set-up takes a lot of time, but there’s also the dismantling the day after the festival, which is hard to get the volunteers involved in.
S: To begin with, it’s all about having fun! A lot of fun! It’s a really convivial time, we’re all together during the week of set-up. We know we’ve all got our objectives, but it’s a relatively quiet time while we wait for the next event. During the event, we try to be relatively serious about providing the best possible service to festival-goers, while at the same time keeping things fun for the volunteers. Afterwards, there’s the Decapadiot after-party for the volunteers, where we relax and enjoy ourselves together.
S: It’s going further and further, welcoming more and more participants, the challenge, the adrenalin rush when the first festival-goers arrive.
A: Being in contact with young people keeps me going! As I start to get older, it’s good to be in contact with young people who don’t just keep to themselves!
D: As far as I’m concerned, it’s the challenge that this event represents. It’s not every day that you get the chance to have a team of 20 people to feed 3,000 festival-goers!
S: The girls from L.E.J. have come to take their showers at my place!
R: I hope you’ve cleaned your shower since then!
S: It gave me a chance to talk to these artists and get to know them a bit better – artists who I’d found so difficult to get to know. It was great!
Born of the passion of Rémy Martiner and Aurélien Ratel (founders of the Musi L’Arc association), the Charoc has established itself as the must-attend rock event of the summer in Savoie. After a triumphant first edition in 2022 that drew 5,000 people, the festival has gone from strength to strength. In 2025, it literally smashed all records, attracting almost 10,000 spectators and a supercharged atmosphere, with over 60 volunteers and 48 partners.
For its 5th edition in 2026, the Charoc is coming back stronger, earlier, and with a programme that’s sure to make some noise!

An explosive and eclectic 2026 programme.
The Charoc’s strength lies in its artistic choices, mixing prestigious tribute bands (cover bands) with high-flying original compositions:
Friday 5 June :
Call me blondie: A pop/disco and New Wave immersion of the late 70s.
Big Ones: A vibrant tribute to Aerosmith with a voice that bears a striking resemblance to Steven Tyler.
Skorpion: Timeless ballads and the sharp riffs of Scorpions.
Saturday 6 June:
Gaga tribute ball: The pop and glitter UFO of this year’s festival, where you can sing along to Lady Gaga’s hits.
Too Fighters: A powerful tribute to one of the most influential rock bands of recent years, the Foo Fighters.
Blackrain: Local figures from Haute-Savoie (with Hellfest and TV experience) set the stage alight with their original hard rock/glam metal.
Black Sabbath legacy: The grand finale, designed as a vibrant tribute to the ‘Prince of Darkness’ Ozzy Osbourne, who died last July.
1. What is the “nugget” or the moment of this 2026 edition that you are most proud of and that you can’t wait to share with the public?
The moment I’m most looking forward to is the audience itself. Seeing thousands of Italian and French festival-goers gathered in the same place, experiencing the same emotion together – that’s the real nugget. And this fraternity won’t just be played out on stage: it will be experienced first and foremost by the audience. That’s what motivated me from the start, and that’s what thrills me today, just a few months before the event.
2. If we had to try just one speciality or experience just one unusual event in the Franco-Italian village this year, what would you recommend?
Without a doubt: the cooking masterclasses. Being able to cook alongside the greatest – Luana Belmondo, Mercotte, and all the chefs from Italy and France – is a rare experience. There are faces that the public knows from TV or the networks, followed by millions of people, and others that we discover when they’re cooking at the top tables. Cooking Italian with a great Italian chef, learning his gestures, his secrets – that’s what I’d recommend to anyone who wants to go home with a real souvenir, and not just a nice photo.
3. Why did you choose the Maurienne to make the heart of Italy beat faster? What message would you like to get across to festival-goers?
We chose the Maurienne first and foremost because many of us were born there, to Italian parents. This region – like so many others in the Rhône-Alpes region – has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Italians who have come to work, settle and make a life for themselves in France. And then there’s our proximity to Italy. Turin is just 1 hour 15 minutes from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Just a few years away from the opening of the transalpine line, which will put Saint-Jean 45 minutes from Turin and Lyon 2 hours from the capital of Piedmont, this festival is also one of the first major events before the 2030 Olympic Games.
The message to festival-goers is this: we’re not just celebrating a culture, we’re celebrating a bond. A historic, human, and soon physical link between our two countries. Come and experience it with us.
From 7 to 14 June 2026, the “Merci les potes” festival returns to Sainte-Marie-de-Cuines with a rich and eclectic programme. With theatre, music, dance and comedy, this new edition promises to rock the Maurienne.
A varied programme to suit all tastes.
Led by Daniel Gros, a passionate local director, the festival is once again proving to be a not-to-be-missed cultural event. Our ambition? To offer an artistic diversity that will appeal to all audiences.
Daniel Gros is a French actor, director and author with deep roots in the Maurienne valley (Savoie).
He is a leading figure in local cultural life, thanks in no small part to his commitment to making culture accessible to all.