Latest news with #MajorLazer
Gulf Today
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Olympic balloon rises again in Paris
A giant balloon that became a popular landmark over the skies of Paris during the 2024 Olympics rose again Saturday evening, as Parisians celebrated an annual street music festival. As locals danced to live music in and around the Tuileries garden in central Paris, the balloon made its return on a hot summer evening. Organisers are hoping it will once again attract crowds of tourists. During the Games, the Olympic cauldron was tethered to the balloon, flying above the Tuileries garden at sunset every day. Thousands flocked to see the seven-metre (23-foot) wide ring of electric fire. Last summer's version "had been thought up to last for the length of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Mathieu Lehanneur, the designer of the cauldron. After President Emmanuel Macron "decided to bring it back, all of the technical aspects needed to be reviewed", he told the media on Thursday. Lehanneur said he was "very moved" that the Olympic balloon was making a comeback. US band Major Lazer's Walshy Fire (right) and Brazilian singer Anitta perform during a concert as the Paris 2024 Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flies above the stage set in the Tuileries garden during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique, in Paris on Saturday. AFP "The worst thing would have been for this memory to become a sitting relic that couldn't fly anymore," he said. 'Make the flames dance' The balloon's return on Saturday kicks off a daily appearance each evening until September 14 -- a summer staple every year until the 2028 Los Angeles Games. "For its revival, we needed to make sure it changed as little as possible and that everything that did change was not visible," said Lehanneur. With a decarbonated fire patented by French energy giant EDF, the upgraded balloon follows "the same technical principles" as its previous version, said director of innovation at EDF Julien Villeret. The improved attraction "will last ten times longer" and be able to function for "300 days instead of 30", according to Villeret. The creators of the balloon also reinforced the light-and-mist system that "makes the flames dance", he said. People watch as the Paris 2024 Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flies above the Tuileries garden at sunset during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique, in Paris on Saturday. AFP Under the cauldron, a machine room hides cables, a compressor and a hydro-electric winch. That system will "hold back the helium balloon when it rises and pull it down during descent", said Jerome Giacomoni, president of the Aerophile group that constructed the balloon. "Filled with 6,200 cubic meters of helium that is lighter than air," the Olympic balloon "will be able to lift around three tonnes" of cauldron, cables and attached parts, he said. The Tuileries garden is where French inventor Jacques Charles took flight in his first gas balloon on December 1, 1783. He followed in the footsteps of the famed Montgolfier brothers, who had just nine days earlier elsewhere in Paris managed to launch a similar balloon into the sky with humans onboard. The website is to display the times when the modern-day balloon will rise and indicate any potential cancellations due to weather. Agence France-Presse
The Hindu
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Paris' iconic cauldron from the Olympic Games returns to light up summer nights
A year after it captivated crowds during the Paris Olympics, a centerpiece of the summer Games made a comeback Saturday to light up the French capital's skyline. The iconic helium-powered balloon that attracted myriads of tourists during the summer Games has shed its Olympic branding and is now just called the 'Paris Cauldron.' It rose again into the air later Saturday, lifting off over the Tuileries Garden just as the sun was about to set. People attend France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique, on the Seine river banks as the Paris 2024 Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flies above the Tuileries garden at sunset in Paris on June 21, 2025. | Photo Credit: AFP Despite the suffocating hot weather in Paris, around 30,000 people were expected to attend the launch, which coincided with France's annual street music festival — the Fete de la Musique, the Paris police prefecture said. And it won't be a one-time event. After Saturday's flight, the balloon will lift off into the sky each summer evening from June 21 to Sept. 14, for the next three years. The cauldron's ascent may become a new rhythm of the Parisian summer, with special flights planned for Bastille Day on July 14 and the anniversary of the 2024 opening ceremony on July 26. US band Major Lazer's Diplo (R) and Ape Drums (L) perform during a concert as the Paris 2024 Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flies above the stage set in the Tuileries garden during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique, in Paris on June 21, 2025. | Photo Credit: AFP Gone is the official 'Olympic' branding — forbidden under International Olympic Committee reuse rules — but the spectacle remains. The 30-meter (98-foot) -tall floating ring, dreamed up by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur and powered by French energy company EDF, simulates flame without fire: LED lights, mist jets and high-pressure fans create a luminous halo that hovers above the city at dusk, visible from rooftops across the capital. Though it stole the show in 2024, the cauldron was only meant to be temporary, not engineered for multi-year outdoor exposure. The structure first dazzled during the Olympics. Over just 40 days, it drew more than 200,000 visitors, according to officials. | Photo Credit: Getty Images To transform it into a summer staple, engineers reinforced it. The aluminum ring and tether points were rebuilt with tougher components to handle rain, sun and temperature changes over several seasons. Though it's a hot-air-balloon-style, the lift comes solely from helium — no flame, no burner, just gas and engineering. The structure first dazzled during the Olympics. Over just 40 days, it drew more than 200,000 visitors, according to officials. Now anchored in the center of the drained Tuileries pond, the cauldron's return is part of French President Emmanuel Macron's effort to preserve the Games' spirit in the city, as Paris looks ahead to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Related Topics Paris Olympics
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What is Fête de La Musique, France's annual solstice celebration?
When the Summer Solstice arrives on Saturday, millions of people across France will attend the impromptu street concerts of 'Fête de La Musique' hosted by restaurants, bars, museums and even libraries — a French summer tradition for more than 40 years now. The Summer Solstice of June 21— the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere — also heralds France's beloved music festival, the Fête de la Musique, which is marking its 44th year. Amid the heat, streets, bars, restaurants, gardens, museums and even libraries across France will host thousands of concerts for one night only. From classical to techno to jazz and rap, the line-up features a mix of renowned artists and bands, including La Femme, Romain Pissenem, Major Lazer Sound System, and Abd al Malik — some of the many artists that will perform at the Olympic Cauldron, which will be re-lit for the first time since the Olympic Games. Read moreA year after Olympics, Paris to party like it's 2024 In every corner of the city, artists from around the globe — from Brazil to Cambodia — will be present, bringing music for every taste. Millions have attended in previous years, with some traveling from outside of France to join the festivities. Read more on FRANCE 24 EnglishRead also:'Nuit Blanche': Art after dark in Paris's beloved all-night festivalChallenging the cowboy myth: Paris show revisits Richard Avedon's iconic 'In the American West'
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What is Fête de La Musique, France's annual solstice celebration?
When the Summer Solstice arrives on Saturday, millions of people across France will attend the impromptu street concerts of 'Fête de La Musique' hosted by restaurants, bars, museums and even libraries — a French summer tradition for more than 40 years now. The Summer Solstice of June 21— the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere — also heralds France's beloved music festival, the Fête de la Musique, which is marking its 44th year. Amid the heat, streets, bars, restaurants, gardens, museums and even libraries across France will host thousands of concerts for one night only. From classical to techno to jazz and rap, the line-up features a mix of renowned artists and bands, including La Femme, Romain Pissenem, Major Lazer Sound System, and Abd al Malik — some of the many artists that will perform at the Olympic Cauldron, which will be re-lit for the first time since the Olympic Games. Read moreA year after Olympics, Paris to party like it's 2024 In every corner of the city, artists from around the globe — from Brazil to Cambodia — will be present, bringing music for every taste. Millions have attended in previous years, with some traveling from outside of France to join the festivities. Read more on FRANCE 24 EnglishRead also:'Nuit Blanche': Art after dark in Paris's beloved all-night festivalChallenging the cowboy myth: Paris show revisits Richard Avedon's iconic 'In the American West'
CBC
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
This new book explores the Art of Dancehall, and features Toronto in a massive way
Right from the genre's inception in the early 1980s, Toronto has been a hub for dancehall music. That's evident in Art of Dancehall, the new book from DJ/producer Walshy Fire — best known for his work with Grammy-nominated genre-bending trio Major Lazer. Art of Dancehall compiles historic dancehall flyers from Jamaica, New York, Japan, and Canada. Walshy Fire was born to Jamaican parents in Florida and grew up between Jamaica and Miami, but he has a deep familiarity with Toronto, having spent childhood summers in Scarborough and Pickering. In the 1960s and '70s Canada experienced a surge in immigration from the Caribbean, with Jamaicans flocking to Toronto in particular. They brought a rich musical history and culture with them. By the 1970s, neighbourhoods like Eglinton West became centres for the creation and sale of reggae records. By the time dancehall emerged in the 1980s, Toronto's Jamaican diaspora had its own musical ecosystem. Most of the flyers in the Canada section belong to podcaster Sheldon "Muscle" Bruce, who began collecting at a very young age and hasn't stopped since. The flyers show a lot of history. Many of dancehall and reggae's most decorated acts performed at some of the country's most iconic venues, including Tony Rebel and Freddie McGregor playing The Opera House in 1994, or Buju Banton performing at Ontario Place a year later. Muscle started collecting flyers in the late 80s when he asked a relative travelling to the UK to bring him back something from their trip. They returned with a flyer for a dancehall party, and that is where his fascination was formed. "Very basic flyer, eight-by-eleven flyer," he says. Simple writing on it, but I was so amazed by it. Even stuff where you'd see the dollar sign was the pound sign, so stuff would make me say 'Holy smokes!'. Because you've never seen this, and I'm touching this thing from another country." He was around 13 years old at the time, and although he was too young to go to the actual parties, that didn't stop him from going to the local barbershop or West Indian store to grab whatever flyers were available. "I really wanted to know what was going on at that particular time there," he says "Even if I can't go, I just want to know. Who was the hot DJs? Who are the hot sounds? Oh, this artist is coming. I just wanted to know. And then after a while, I knew that as long as I have these things, this is going to be a snapshot of history." The relationship between Canada and Jamaica has always been strong, particularly among musicians, Bruce adds. "A lot of artists, the first time they ever left [Jamaica], Canada was the first place they came to," he says. Beyond becoming a go-to tour stop for Jamaican artists, Toronto developed its own DJ collectives, known as sound systems, who would have soundclashes. A soundclash is a musical battle between two or more sound systems or DJs where they try to outplay each other with better selections. It originated in Jamaica, and was a large part of the dancehall culture in Toronto during the '90s. One of Bruce's most notable flyers is for the legendary bout between local sound systems King Turbo and Super Fresh. King Turbo were the consensus top crew in Canada at that time. Super Fresh were the newcomers gunning for Turbo's spot. "That was legendary. That was August 1997 at Marina Banquet Hall," he says. That was a big thing because Super Fresh was from the west [end of the city] and King Turbo was from the east… It was a real standoff. You're defending your song tonight, and we're defending ours. It was crazy, a gunshot actually ended the dance." Clashes were often territorial, with sound systems representing different parts of the city. They were usually dark, smoky and even hostile affairs. It was not uncommon for a soundclash to end in violence. DJ Ron Nelson is one of the pioneers of Black music in Canada His show Fantastic Voyage on community station CKLN was Canada's first radio program dedicated to hip-hop. Towards the end of his tenure he started playing dancehall once a week — the last Saturday of every month. He would later launch ReggaeMania, which became one of the premier shows playing reggae and dancehall in the '90s. He was around for some of those unsavoury endings to a night of fun. "There's a lot of bad boys in dancehall," he says. You know, gunmen. We went through periods of having many incidents of dances where there [were] shootouts. Every… person who's a patron of dancehall probably knows somebody who's gotten shot or killed or murdered, so that's the sad side of it." Community radio station logos were a constant presence on the flyer. Stations like CKLN, CHRY and CIUT, which had been integral in the growth of hip-hop in Canada, were now playing an essential role in the maturation of dancehall. "Community radio was huge," says Bruce. "Remember back then — we're talking about the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s — there wasn't any internet. There was no way to really disseminate this information so people could get it. These were big, big platforms and to this day they still have a place in the community, because they're community driven." Ron Nelson played a huge part in that, giving members of the local dancehall community their first opportunities on the air, often turning his show over to local sound systems, letting them be stars in their own right. "The one thing that I did that most people don't do is humbled myself," he says. I brought our local sound systems on the radio for their first time. I said, 'Come on down, and I'm going to let you play and let you talk too.'" The Art of Dancehall is more than a book, it's a time capsule that captures a movement that took root in Canada and blossomed into a full-fledged culture. They're more than just promotional material; the flyers are visual reminders of the golden era of dancehall in Canada. They tell a story about migration, identity, and how music travels, transforms, and ultimately takes root in places far from its origin.
