| Paléo Festival | |
| Location: | Plaine de l'Asse Nyon, Switzerland |
| Years Active: | 1976–present |
| Dates: | end of July, from Tuesday to Sunday |
| Genre: | Rock music |
The Paléo Festival de Nyon, usually just called Paléo, is an annual rock festival held in Nyon, Switzerland. It started in a small way in 1976 as the Nyon Folk Festival. The first one was held in the village hall in Nyon. From 1977 until 1989, it was held at Colovray, Nyon, by Lake Geneva and had only two stages, but today it is one of the major open-air music festivals in mainland Europe and the biggest in Switzerland. Today the event has grown to include international artists. In 1990, it moved to its current location, at 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 days at the end of July, from Tuesday to Sunday, and the final main stage concert is preceded by a great firework display with music.
As of 2005, 3.5 million spectators and 2500 artists had been part of the Paléo Festival.
The Paléo features six stages:
Since 2003, the Paléo has introduced Le Village du Monde (The World Village) section, which is a 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.
280,000 visitors and over 5,000 staff participated in the 2015 event.
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 programme 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 sales, 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 2008 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 280,000 tickets and passes were sold in a record one-and-a-half hours.
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:
For a full list see the 2002 history.
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.
For a full list see the 2004 history.
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 of 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.
For a full list see the 2005 history.
Paléo took place from 18 to 23 July 2006 with the following artists:
Eastern Europe hosted the Village du Monde.
For a full list see the 2006 history.
For a full list see the 2007 history.
R.E.M. headlined the Sunday night.
For a full list see the 2008 history.
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.
For a full list see the 2009 history.
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 Southern Africa.
For a full list see the 2010 history.
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 was the Caribbean.
For a full list see the 2011 history.
17 July
18 July
19 July
20 July
21 July
22 July
23 July
24 July
25 July
26 July
27 July
28 July
The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.