From livewire rock acts and trip-hop vibes to large-format puppetry and Gallic gastronomy, the recent “Indo-French Festival 2025 – A Touch of France” must have left a vault of memories for the folks and weekender tourists who turned up at the Promenade Beach during the three-day event.

The free-entry show, a collaborative venture of the Tourism department, the French Consulate, Navayuga Consultancy Service, Puducherry and Association Passages, France, was as much a celebration of the centuries-old historical-cultural ties between France and its erstwhile governorate of Pondicherry and a signpost of future partnerships. Another important aim was to spur tourism and rejuvenate local economy.

Over its duration, the fete featured an array of events, including a colourful Guignol parade, giant puppet play, live music concerts, street performaces and gastronomy adventures.

The day two of the festival saw French rock musician Jewly stirring up the audience with her deep and expressive voice complementing the gravitas of the song-writing during the ‘Vibrant Synchronicity Concert’.

The performance, that featured Geoffrey Grenier (guitar) and Raphaël Schuler (drums), also used background projection of the official video songs from her albums to help uninitiated audiences acquaint with a microcosm of her oeuvre.

“For my last three albums, I (had) made a video for each song! This allows the audience to immerse deeper in the emotion and meaning of the strong themes being addressed,” said Jewly.

In fact, Jewly is among the modern musicians who strongly believe that artists should lend their voices for relevant causes and regularly engage in an unflinching critique of social maladies.

“As an artist we have the chance to be able to deliver vital messages. In my opinion, that’s also part of our role,” said the singer-songwriter whose new 10-track concept album “Rebellion” that released in 2024, tackles mental health and societal problems.

She has used French and English lyrics in the album that shows how one’s worldview transitions over time — French lyrics to represent the youth and English verse for the adults’ outlook on life.

The album has been shaped by her work as a chemist where “caring for others” is quintessential to the job.

“My experience as pharmacist and an empathetic, hypersensitive side makes me put mental health front and centre,” said Jewly.

The musician’s previous album, “Toxic” had reflected 10 toxic situations encountered in a woman’s journey from 4 years of age to 37 years. There is also humanistic urging accompanying her musical vision — something best illustrated in the lines of the track “Ready to” (from “Toxic”) that goes:

“Madness madness we love you, we see things no one can see We are disabled or crazy, life can seem cruel in all its beauty Yellow, black or white skin, Hindu, Jew, Christian or Muslim We give money to the tramp we could all become and we don’t spit at him…”

In contrast to the explosive energy in encountering Jewly’s music, Lily Jung’s presentation was a contrasting precipitate of meditative melody. The artist’s “Tree Songs” concert was to be savoured leaning back into the seat, shutting the eyes and immersing in a slow melodic swirl.

From a young age, Lily has trained in classical music and her singing reflects an admixture of blues, gospel, trip-hop and jazz. She travels a lot to India, whose culture she imbibes from. Since 2021, she has been part of the pagan-folk group SKALD.

Frédéric Simon, puppeteer-graphist who presented “Strolling show – Streets,” featuring giant puppet characters that especially delighted children. He has transformed traditional figures of French puppetry (Guignol, Madelon, Gnafron, the Gendarme) into street puppets built on site with mix of local materials.

Ali Salmi, choreographer and dancer, presented “Rotation..A Wandering,” an intersection of movement performance and street spaces. The group of French artists also featured Yann le Ny, graphist-photographer and Lucien Rennie, pastry chef.