Le Placard

Le Placard started in 1998 in Paris, France. At that time finding venues for alternative music was difficult, and police raids on unlicensed events were frequent. So instead, Erik Minkkinen organised a headphone party in his small apartment, called ‘placard’ after the French word for ‘cupboard’.

Since then this concept has grown to an international streaming festival, with tens of cities providing listening rooms for local and remote performances. Placard has formed part of the Mutek, Transmediale, Garage and Pixelache festivals. The event in Paris has itself grown into an institution, running for 72 hours straight where the audience sleep with their headphones on, still listening.

The first London Placard was held in 2003 with its own innovations including 20 minute quick-fire performances conducted by a robot directing and switching between performers. Past artists have so far included Hot Chip, David Toop, Janek Schaefer, Leafcutter John, Adem, Max Eastley, Sanso-Xtro, Jem Finer, Icarus, Main and Colin Potter*.

Le Placard London has got two headphone sessions this year, one at Cafe OTO on the 20th September and another at Shunt as part of the Netaudio festival on the 24th October. The lineup for this session will be announced sometime towards the end of September.

Visit Le Placard for more info about the event, and don’t forget to bring along your headphones on Friday, 24th October.