Florence, Nancy and Texas were the homes and influences of Stadtgarten 2026 on it’s last date in 2026. In Giulia Millanta and Blond Bélier we had two very different styles of music to enjoy – but that’s part of Stadtgarten’s magic after all. Bring a blanket for the grassy ground and a picnic basket, or dance energetically to the music close to the stage. It’s your choice. The main aim – relax and enjoy!
Friday’s concert had wet weather to contend with and Saturday looked like it might also be a day for umbrellas and raincoats. Fortunately though an early drizzle barely dampened the ground and certainly didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the audience who seemed to appear out of nowhere as soon as it left off.
Those that braved the early shower were rewarded by an excellent set from Italian singer based in Texas Giulia Millanta. Her songs were predominantly in english but also in Italian and Spanish. Her life could have been very different as she remembrs“I actually gained a doctorate in Medicine before deciding to pursue a musical career. You can imagine how my parents felt about that!”. Ultimately playing music was where her heart was, and clearly still is. Her material is a mix of love songs, road songs and, curiously, a fair smattering of songs referencing the moon, which does finally make an appearance between the clouds later in the evening.
Before the moon makes it’s appearance though there is plenty of good music to enjoy from Giulia and her German band (a duo who did a fine job of accompanying her despite not having much time to play themselves in as a band in advance). Kudos especially to the double bass player who also provided excellent harmonies throughout.
I especially enjoyed ‘Fade into Mist’. There was some laughter from the audience over this one though when Guilia asked what ‘mist’ was in german? (the german word ‘Mist’ does not translate directly to english!). A chance was even offered to win a guitar pick if you could guess who wrote the song ‘Bang Bang’ originally, and no it wasn’t Nancy Sinatra, and also no, I’m not letting on who it was! It was a bit of a surprise when she announced the next song as ‘Puppet on a String’ though, I was especially hoping she would ask who first sang it, however it turned out not to be the Sandie Shaw Eurovision hit after all.
‘I Dance my Way’ had a good rhythm for dancing to keep the front rows of the audience busy, and already an excellent set was racing too quickly to its end. “I was once told that you can’t be a songwriter unless you’ve written a waltz song” smiled Millanta. ‘Luna Lo Sa’ is her waltz song so to speak and beautiful it was too. An enjoyable set of Italian-American indie-folk then from Giulia Millanta. She is a quality songwriter as her latest solo acoustic release ‘To the Bone’ proves. Worth checking out for folk/indie fans for sure.
A short pause to change the instruments over and we go from indie-pop to a band who are labelled a curious genre mix of ‘Chanson, pop-rock/electro’. What to expect? Blond Bélier is a French musical project based in Nancy and centred around Martin Lardé, a big man with an even bigger smile who handles vocals and songwriting/lyrics. He’s joined by a small band of collaborators: Polo Leblan on keyboards and arrangements, Romain Aweduti on drums and arrangements, and Benjamin Chapelier on guitar, bass, and also arrangements.
As with previous years, Institut Francais Bonn presented us with an absolute gem of a band. Lardé admits to speaking very little english or german but he radiates a calmness and friendliness that has the whole, by now sizeable, audience completely on his side. Despite its electro-synth background the material carries a lot of emotional power – due very much to Lardé’s vocals. High point of the evening was undoubtedly when he sat on the front of the stage to sing a song about falling out with his daughter and writing the song lyrics from her perspective to understand her side of things better. Thanks to Kathrin from Institut Francais for quickly helping Martin Lardé out with the explanation. It was a song that clearly touched the hearts of the audience.
The band’s description states that it’s music is aimed at “Dancing out of our cracks and flaws, aiming for something universal enough that anyone can recognize themselves in it” and that really is at the heart of Blond Bélier’s music. The band has a universal appeal and tonight it recieved universal applause at the end of another excellent evening offering free music of a high calibre from band’s who, whatever music they bring to the table, always do so with a keenness that many an older band could learn from.
The end of another Stadtgarten season then, and time to take stock with organizer Hans-Joachim (HaJo) Over. “Zufrieden!” (satisfied) is HaJo’s summing up. Big audiences in the first couple of weeks as the sun shone throughout were reduced a little later on when storms threatened. HaJo notes happily though that even when the weather didn’t play along, as on 21 August when rain stopped play during the show, there was still a good sized and enthusiastic audience present.
With Bonn’s current financial plight it is clearer than ever that without the help of Hotel Königshof (Ameron), Landesmusikrat, Kunstrasen Verein, PopCamp, Kultur Station, Institut Francais Bonn and others these concerts wouldn’t happen. A thank you to all concerned, and a hope that next year will see another Stadtgarten Season – perhaps even back to it’s previous length again given that there is so much musical talent deserving a live stage these days and fewer stages for them to shine on.
Oh, and finally a quick THANK YOU! to this man for once again making it all possible and despite the stresses, always being friendly and approachable:
