Cévennes. Intense heat, rugged stones and dried out river. Reminiscence of italian paesini. Kids leaping into the green water. The show is sold out, 2000 people or more on the village square, hot and noisy. The festival is one with spirit, run by volunteers. We start the show at 10:45 pm and watch all the faces, they came from the nearby valleys, or cities further away, Montpellier, Nîmes, Béziers. Beyond the crests of the surrounding mountains lightning strikes and it starts raining but the storm stays afar. The moon is still shining hard above it all. We finish it off with Hanoi Blue and Rambling Man. At 2am after a long drive through the nightly forests we reach an isolated mas cévenol, une ancienne magnanerie, transformed from a silk-factory into a guesthouse. Cats eating grasshoppers, a scorpion in the bathtub, black shiny horses in the barren fields. Moriarty on tour: Festival Transes Cévenoles, Sumène (F) 28.07.12.
