That’s what entrepreneur Matthieu Corosine, co-founder, Panda Events and Nice resident found out when Les Plages Électroniques music festival sold out with 55,000 attendees this year.

From humble beginnings in the French Caribbean, to a chance encounter, meeting his now business partner Benoit Geli in a reggae bar in Nice in 2004. Entrepreneur Matthieu Corosine is one of the most celebrated destination-event organisers in the world. We sit down with the owner to talk about growing his brand, the digital nomad movement, and post-Covid challenges.

Matthieu you launched MOGA Essaouira in Morrocco in 2016 (Mogador is the old Portuguese name for Essaouira) and expanded this franchise to Caparica in Lisbon relaunching it after the Covid post-pandemic lockdown, tell us about that.

I discovered Caparica a long time ago when it was an off-the-beaten track destination for travellers. I organise a lot of music festivals around the world and after a full and heavy season I arrived here and it stuck in my mind ever since. There were almost no expats living here at that time, and it was fun because all the tourists we met then are the same people who live here today. We organised our flagship Les Plages Électroniques in Caparica in 2016 and 2017, and returned post-Covid to do something special and expand our franchise MOGA.

Lisbon, and more specifically Caparica, have started to gain significant interest recently not only because of its appeal to digital nomads post-covid, its surf scene and tech communities but because of its artistic bohemian nature for people wanting to get-off-the-beaten track and discover something new. That’s where MOGA comes in, we want to keep the festival as boutique as we can, limited in numbers and offer experience packages including food, surfing, yoga, hiking, and culture with free as well as paid-for events for everyone to enjoy, including families. Next year we plan to launch MOGA Senegal in Saly, which again will be focused on discovering unique experiences with the local culture, food, and African artists.

Saly has about 14 art galleries as well as fashion, poetry, literature, sculptures, painting; a lot of artists come here, for their creative process, it’s a very inspiring place, when we arrived, it was obvious we had to organise some kind of event here.

This year DJ David Guetta contacted you to play at Les Plages Électroniques in Cannes to a sold out 55,000 crowd over three days in the city. You must be very proud of your success considered you started the festival in 2006 with 400 people on the beach, held every August, and now you are celebrating its 15th anniversary?
This year was our biggest Les Plages Électroniques yet. Covid was kind of a blessing for us because it allowed us to have time to reflect, to think about what we could do better and what we could change to make it more successful. We changed the brand image for the first time in 15 years, and we partnered with La Plage Majestic beach bar, part of the Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes on La Croisette Boulevard for the first time.

Cannes has traditionally been known for its Film Festival but access to tickets and private parties is restrictive and too expensive for the young people who live here. That is how Les Plages Électroniques was born, but we had to do it right, to accommodate both the older generation who live here and break down barriers where people assume younger party goers are reckless and noisy. I believe we have proven this is not the case. We push ourselves to do things the right way, in a responsible manner. Security is paramount and we are one of the only music festivals to have a police station, prosecutor and judiciary official onsite to deal with any problems and an inhouse hospital with two emergency doctors and medical vehicles. We are prepared for every eventuality and have had no serious incidents to date.

We commissioned an economic study in 2019, which found the event brings in €5m towards Cannes tourism each year over the three days of the festival. It’s a win-win for the city and a way to demonstrate how young people can be an added-value to the region. People are here to spend money, dress well and promote the image of Cannes taking photos and posting them on social media.


Festivals in France are going through a crisis this year. We are one of the lucky ones to be sold out but that cannot be said for some of our contemporaries. Many people spent such a long time at home during the pandemic they have chosen to go abroad instead of staying here and some festivals have taken a huge hit financially because of that. It’s a big challenge to exist. We want to become internationally renowned like Coachella in LA but we need more visibility to survive and want to increase the quality of the crowd versus quantity to become more financially successful, maybe increase our VIP offering, host a stage at La Plage Majestic, to become more attractive to sponsors.

Previously La Plage Majestic was closed during the event because the noise was too loud for their customers, but because we raised the bar – for example the lineup features more international artists (Paul Kalkbrenner, Artbat, Martin Garrix) they decided to work with us. For David Guetta we were very lucky, his manager actually contacted us, he has played everywhere in the south of France but never Les Plages Électroniques, and asked if he could play here. For us, it was an alignment of stars, because the fact that we are at the beginning of August is the worst time to book artists because they go abroad.

You organize many events all over the world including: Martizik (in Martinique, your home town in the French Caribbean); Miami Nice Jazz Festival (an export of Nice Jazz Festival in Miami, the two are sister cities) and Les Nuits Guitares (Beaulieu-Sur-Mer) to name a few. What’s next for you?
We actually organise Le Bal des Fous fancy dress party every Sunday during the summer months in July and August in Cannes, and Crossover Festival, at Théâtre de Verdure in Nice (September 8-11, 2022). Next we have MOGA Essaouira in Morocco, (September 28-October 2) famous for its Game of Thrones movie set. We invited Irish DJ Kristian Nairn aka ‘Hodor’ to play at the press conference when it opened in 2016 and we already announced the line-up for this year (featuring Acid Arab, Parallells, Polo & Pan and Bel Ãge, and DJ Vibe to name a few). Following this we will launch Les Dunes Électroniques in Tunisia where Star Wars was filmed.

It is my passion to bring people from all over the world together, uniting different nationalities into one place. There has never been a better time to launch destination experiences as people are keen to travel more than ever before following the Covid pandemic. I strive to promote cultural diversity and discuss what more can we do with dignitaries such as Essaouira mayor Tarik Ottmani, and André Azoulay, senior advisor to King Mohamed VI of Morocco.

It’s important for me to bring different cultures together, I am from the French Caribbean, I come from a place that is very mixed with a lot of influences from many different places, I enjoy the concept of fusing electronic with local cultural gnawa music and try to launch a creation between the two.

You sound like you are a very busy man, what do you like to do in your spare time?
I am continuing to fuse traditional folklore music with the electronic dance scene, I recently produced a collaborative original creation featuring some of the best traditional gnawa musicians (Maalem Omar Hayat, Ahmed Labnoua and Khalil Ghand) at the Non-Fungible Conference in Lisbon earlier this year, now available to buy as an NFT ‘Non-Fungible Token’ (a digital collectible bought and sold using cryptocurrency) on our label Pianity. I am also working with the municipality of Almada, where Caparica is based, to pair it with Essaouira in Morocco, to become twin cities to promote tourism, cultural exchanges and science education.

When I am in Cannes and Les Plages Électroniques has finished I like to rent a boat and visit the ‘Calanques of the Esterel’ the natural park has 25km of red rocks and beautiful small bays. You can also take a snorkel and visit the six 2m high sculptures of the underwater eco museum, created by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor, 10m from the shore of Sainte-Marguerite Island, (which are based on the theme of the Man in the Iron Mask, who was imprisoned for 11 years on the island from 1687 to 1698). From here reserve a table for lunch at La Tonnelle on Saint-Honorat island and visit Abbaye de Lérins, where you can buy the local wine from the vineyards.

Also, every year, Cannes hosts one of the biggest competitions in the world for fireworks ‘Festival International D’Art Pyrotechnique’ (during July and August). An insider tip is to go head to the top of Le Suquet (old town) to the square at the top which overlooks the bay, as it has the best view of the fireworks display, much better than on the beach because it’s too crowded. But here it is relaxing and quiet and you can take a picnic and share a bottle of wine with your friends.

BOX OUT
How to get there: Cannes https://en.cannes-france.com/ is a destination with good transport links with Nice-Côte d'Azur and Cannes-Mandelieu airports, its TGV station is located in the city center and off the A8 motorway.
Stay: OKKO Hôtel: https://www.okkohotels.com/en/page/cannes/.3097.html
Book: La Tonnelle: http://www.cannes-ilesdelerins.com/en/restaurant-la-tonnelle/
Hire a speedboat with Black Tenders: https://www.blacktenders.fr/en/
Next by Panda Events: https://www.panda-events.com Crossover Festival, Nice (September 8-11, 2022) https://www.festival-crossover.com MOGA Essaouira (Sept 30-Oct 2, 2022) https://www.mogafestival.com

PHOTOS: @insmachado