The Xmas Vybe festival at Accor Arena in December brings together the Afro-Caribbean music scene in France in a format that no other Paris event attempts. Zouk, kompa, dancehall, and Afrobeats on one stage, with an audience that represents the full diversity of the French Caribbean and African diaspora.
The lineup for the 2024 edition included Franglish, Ronisia, Monsieur Nov, Thierry Cham, Gage, Kaysha, Kim, Lisandro Cuxi, Lynnsha, Maureen, Oswald, Alain Ramanisum, and Singuila. The breadth of that list tells you something about the scope of the event: it was not organized around a single genre or a single generation but around a community and its full musical range.
The energy in the room was unlike most concerts I cover. Afro-Caribbean music is dance music in the most direct sense, meaning that the crowd participates physically in a way that changes the atmosphere of the venue. Accor Arena, which can feel cavernous and impersonal for certain shows, was transformed by a crowd that was dancing from the first song to the last.
The surprise finale featuring Franglish produced the largest response of the evening. His combination of French rap and R&B has made him one of the most popular artists in this scene and his closing set demonstrated why.
This festival is one of the events that most clearly represents the Paris that exists outside tourist Paris. The community it serves is enormous, its music is joyful and technically accomplished, and the atmosphere it creates in a room is something that more conventionally programmed events rarely achieve.
