Main pic: Phil Kieran at Le Bar á Vins during Convenanza 2026
On Saturday night in a castle in Carcassonne, Jonnie Wilkes of Optimo did something very unusual before his four-hour headline set. Taking the mic and addressing the expectant crowd, he made a short but emotionally charged speech, recalling the last time he stood on this stage 10 years ago with two of his musical brothers – his partner in Optimo, Keith McIvor (aka JD Twitch), and the great Andrew Weatherall.
“They were such oracles of wisdom and two of the best DJs there ever were, and it’s very meaningful to be here tonight,” he said. “It’s also very sad that I’m here alone this time.
“I don’t really know where we’re headed musically tonight, but I know it’s with immense love for Andrew and Keith.”
What followed was an epic, at times spiritual journey through many different shades of electronic music drawn from the last 40+ years, from the very earliest Detroit techno (A Number Of Names’ Sharevari) and 80s industrial sounds via long passages of hypnotic, loopy techno and on towards some moments of real emotional majesty that united DJ and crowd in love for two departed heroes.
Early in the set, the monumental Weatherall remix of Fuck Buttons’ Sweet Love For Planet Earth segued into the beatless version of Smokebelch by his group The Sabres of Paradise – a moment of bittersweet joy that will live long in the memory.
Catching up with Inflyte+ a week after the festival, Bernie Fabre – who co-founded Convenanza with Weatherall in 2013 – reflected on Wilkes on-stage address and the set that followed: “He asked for a microphone when we did the change of the stage. I think he needed to say those words, because it’s special,” he said.
“The last time he was on that very same stage, on his left-hand side was Keith, on his right-hand side was Andrew. So that must have been something particular to be there, to have to create joy in this venue, but the two people he had a strong connection with were no longer there.
“I think the crowd shared that moment with him because he spoke from the heart, a very simple speech, which everybody could relate to. And so that set the tone for his set, which was amazing.”
More than a festival, over the last 15 years Convenanza has become an annual celebration for music fans from around Europe and beyond, as this restored medieval castle in the south of France offers a magical setting for a weekend of diverse music tied together by the vision of the late Weatherall.
His death, soon followed by the covid pandemic, cast the future of Convenanza into doubt, but since being resurrected by Fabre and his small team in 2021, it has become an essential opportunity to remember The Guv’nor – as he is known by long-time fans – and to carry forward his spirit of musical adventure and discovery in the place he loved so well.
As well as headline sets by Optimo and Sean Johnston, who formed the DJ duo A Love From Outer Space with Weatherall a decade before his death, there was wall-shaking electronic dub from Ghost Dubs and Elijah Minnelli, feminist punk rock from London’s Jeanie and the White Boys, ambient and psychedelic sets from Vladimir Ivkovic and Tia Cousins – the latter opened proceedings in the castle on Friday and Saturday night – and much more besides.
With a small capacity of 1500 and only one act performing at any one time, it all makes for a heady musical concoction across four nights – including the opening and closing parties in the gorgeous outdoor setting of the nearby Bar à Vins.
With Andrew Weatherall no longer around to lead the curation, his memory and spirit now act as a north star for Fabre and his team. The aim is always to book artists that have something of the Weatherall DNA, whether it be, as Fabre puts it, “dub or primitive rock and roll.” And the open-mindedness of the crowd makes that possible.
“We like to surprise people, and we are lucky because we have an audience who is ready for this style,” he says. “Even if there’s something like heavy dub, then punk rock in the Jeanie and the White Boys mould, they’re open to everything. There’s not one genre we offer, we try to offer something which is above the rest. That’s why I think it works.”
While the magnificent Chateau Comtal is rightly the symbol and soul of the festival, Le Bar has come to rival it in importance, and it was the setting for some of the weekend’s most inspired moments. On Saturday afternoon, Phil Kieran stepped into the shoes of fellow Belfast hero David Holmes, who couldn’t make it this year, for a well-deserved debut behind the decks.
Best known for 25 years in techno, in recent years he’s expanded his palette with film soundtracks, under-the-radar edits of classic post-punk and Krautrock tracks, and hazy dream-pop under his Le Carousel alias.
On a beautiful sunny day, his four-hour set moved easily between genres with cuts from Can, The Fall, Throbbing Gristle, New Order and a series of new beat and acid house obscurities, before climaxing with last year’s epic Le Carousel single We’re All Gonna Hurt in an ecstatic final hour. The session got Bernie’s seal of approval: “I told him no techno, and he got the memo perfectly,” he smiles.
Meanwhile, rising London DJ Rosie Ama’s closing set at Le Bar on Sunday night was Convenanza at its most bacchanalian. A packed crowd, men and women clambering atop the beer barrel tables to dance and a carnival atmosphere – more than impressive after four nights of dancing and, it must be noted, a much more mature crowd than your average festival.
Ama’s set caught the mood with four hours (and credit goes to the organisers by blessing us with extended sets throughout the festival) of hypnotic chuggers, cosmic vibes and post-punk energy. Sean Johnston’s storming remix of Living In Ghosts’ Stay On Top set the place alight, while the Leftside Wobble edit of The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows rounded off the weekend on a deliriously trippy note.
“It was the fourth day, but it was so good that everybody was dancing from start to finish,” Bernie reflects. “That’s when you know you’ve got a good party going on.”
Convenanza is an annual pilgrimage for most, and we’ll all be back to do it again in 2027. But there’s a twist, as Bernie reveals: “Next year, we may have Thursday night in the castle as well, which is really something exceptional. We asked for it and it was refused in previous years, but the manager of the castle after the festival said, ‘If you want three nights, you can have them next year’.
“So it will probably be Thursday, Friday, Saturday in the castle, and Sunday at Bar à Vins or somewhere else. Maybe we can have a live act on the Thursday as well, so that would make it an even better format for people to enjoy it even more.”
See you next year.