While in France (for the French Grand Prix mainly) I did manage to get to the MIMI Festival for the OFFERING concert - and bloody great it was too! There was a maelstrom of a mistral blowing which played havoc with the countless illicit microphones popping up out of the alien orifices all around me - but we stuck it out. OFFERING were not quite as good under these extreme weather conditions as perhaps they could have been under more normal circumstances, but it certainly added atmosphere and tension to the set, which was very apt. The support group were a wonderful band from Holland called BLAST.
You have to consider how far the Mimi Festival site is from civilization and other human settlements: On the Wednesday and Thursday I had spent a lot of soul searching, agonising and footwork trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get from Marseilles to St Martin de Crau and then on to Etang des Aulnes and back to Marseilles with no transport and an incomplete command of de lingo.
By Thursday night I'd given up hope and set off to the Grand Prix track at Castellet on Friday morning at 05h00. Then after the practice sessions, at about 15h30 on the coach back from the circuit to the Hotel Concorde la Palm Beach in Marseilles, I decided that no matter what happened this was an opportunity that I could not miss. So I decided to give it my best shot. By 17h00 I was harassing the bewildered souls in the Office Tourisme ... my original plans were to get a train to Aries and then figure it out from there, but for some reason they disagreed. I was eventually persuaded to try the coach station and get a bus (unlikely I thought, but time was running out). Thirty minutes later a much bemused jeune femme in the coach station info office suggested I get a bus to Salon. ("Where?" I thought..."This is getting peculiar - wish I'd remembered to pack a map in my rush to leave the hotel"). So armed with a bag full of bus timetables I got the 18h00 bus to Centreville (Salon) a real nice place to raise your kids. It was 19h30 by the time I arrived in Salon and still no idea where I was in relation to the Festival site - except I was told it was only about thirty minutes away. No buses from Salon in the evening - tough luck! So the next step was to search this tiny town for a taxi (similar to a needle in a haystack).
Eventually I found a taxi driver who'd packed up for the night and persuaded him to take me - except neither he or I knew where the site was. So off we jolly well go 'cos its about 20h15 by now (a slight doubt begins to cross my mind about whether this was such a brilliant idea). Twenty minutes later (after stopping at the taxi drivers house for info / maps etc) we find St Martin de Crau, but don't see any sign posts for the gig. So after asking directions at a local garage, we set off towards a place called La Dynamite. I had realised the driver was not really concentrating and had to keep pointing out signposts etc until.... Hooray, we arrive at the festival site at Etang des Aulnes!
It's about 21h00 by now, but the relief was enormous - at last another OFFERING concert. Then a surprise bonus in that BLAST were so much better than I had anticipated. They were like the early MOTHERS. At approximately 02h00 the concert finished and it was time to join the party inside the barn for Coffee and a smoke ..."Now (I thought) how do I get back to Marseilles before the coach leaves for the second day of Grand Prix practice.... hmm.... never mind that, how the hell do I get back to civilization!"
The site closes at the Mimi Festival at four in the morning. This was an unexpected surprise! Oh joy, by then I'd sorted out a lift to Marseilles with Eric - only trouble was that by then he was too stoned to be moved further than the car park. Frantic enquiries provided the solution - I hitched a lift with BLAST (the band) into St Martin de Crau and then got a lift from a Ray Charles fan in his 2CV to Aries. Then I got a train to Marseilles and the metro to Prado. Finally I took the bus to the Hotel ... and missed my coach to the circuit de Castellet (Paul Ricard) by thirty minutes. Great fun. Next year I vow to plan ahead and sort out some transport!