Festival Didier Lockwood / Jazz Musette des Puces

Swing Returns to the Puces de Saint-Ouen

There was a time when the cafés and aisles of the Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen echoed with the sound of accordions, gypsy guitars, and brass. It is this unique musical heritage that the Festival Jazz Musette des Puces strives to revive each year, since its creation in 2005 on the initiative of jazz violinist Didier Lockwood and Serge Malik.

This festival, unlike any other, has decided to make its setting one of its major assets. No large air-conditioned halls, no stage isolated from the public: here, music takes over the streets, cafés, market aisles, and open-air stages, recreating the atmosphere of the golden years of Parisian musette jazz.

A Festive and Accessible Format for All

The Jazz Musette des Puces Festival takes place over a weekend, offering a rich and varied program that combines open-air concerts, a musical bar crawl, and evening dinner shows. The flagship format of the event is the grand musical stroll through 29 different locations — bars, covered passages, market aisles — animated by 29 musical groups performing simultaneously from 3 PM to 7 PM. The public wanders freely from stage to stage, creating a unique and festive musical experience.

The evening continues with a grand open-air concert starting at 7 PM, preceded or followed by strolling brass bands that lead the crowd through the market streets. Everything is completely free, in keeping with the festival's popular ethos.

Gypsy Jazz, Musette, and Swing: The Festival's Roots

At the heart of the festival are the genres that made the Puces musically legendary: gypsy jazz, a direct legacy of Django Reinhardt whose strings long animated the market cafés; musette, the French popular music born from the accordion and the dance hall; and swing in all its variations. Virtuoso violins and accordions, jazz guitars, double basses, and festive brass make up the characteristic sound of this programming.

But the festival is not confined to tradition. Each edition features artists who renew and reinterpret these genres, blending them with contemporary influences — electro jazz, gypsy pop, French chanson — to reach a wide and diverse audience.

Didier Lockwood: A Memory, A Tribute

Since 2018, the festival has borne the name of Didier Lockwood, the great French jazz violinist who passed away in February 2018, in tribute to his foundational role in the event's creation. Lockwood had always shown a deep attachment to the popular roots of French jazz and saw the Puces de Saint-Ouen as the ideal setting for a festival that would reconcile jazz with its natural popular audience.

Saint-Ouen: World Capital of Musette Jazz

The Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen, with their unique atmosphere, their labyrinthine passages, and their lively cafés, provide the dream setting for this festival. Located on the border between Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, the Puces de Saint-Ouen welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors each weekend for bargain hunting. The festival transforms this visit into an unforgettable musical experience, adding a festive and artistic dimension to the traditional stroll through the market aisles.