Hellfest launches a “kids” version of its festival, with Aldebert at its head

Aldebert, star of children's songs, reconnects with his adolescence and puts a metal veneer on his next disc in the Enfantillages series. For this new album scheduled for April 26, the artist has created a double, Helldebert. Nothing surprising for this Hellfest regular. And that’s good since the metal festival chose him as the headliner for its Kids edition, launched this year.

The rock tones already present on old titles, like Du gros son or Hyperactif, sprinkle Helldebert, Enfantillages 666, which however does not fall into extreme music. “I play on an energy that children respond to, I don’t do “growl” (throat singing), I add little metal touches but you stay in “Enfantillages”, you stay in Aldebert,” explains the singer to the AFP.

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His records aimed at children and his passion for metal led Hellfest to choose him as headliner for its first special Kids edition. The event will take place on June 26 in Clisson, in a location close to the adult edition, which will take place from June 27 to 30. “It will be free and only open to CP students from the ten schools in the Sèvre and Maine conurbation,” said Éric Perrin, the communications director, to Le Parisien. The children will receive an invitation for themselves and two companions of their choice (parents, brothers and sisters), an educational kit made with Les Incollables and Hellfest Kids goodies. We will receive around 3,000 people.” For safety reasons, 100 decibels will not be exceeded that day.

The two men behind this initiative are none other than the founders of Hellfest, Ben Barbaud and Yoann Le Nevé. “I'm a loyal fan of their festival, they knew I was preparing something metal that had been brewing for a long time. I suggested that they come on Sunday morning, at mass time (laughs), on a small stage, laughs Aldebert in the columns of Le Parisien. Ben told me that he wanted Hellfest to remain an adult festival and that he wanted to do something better than a festival within a festival: a full-fledged event for kids, in another venue. It’s even better than we hoped.”

Aldebert, who became Helldebert for this new album, will be on tour from May until next spring. He will be at the Olympia on April 5 and 6, 2025. If Enfantillages 666 has not yet been revealed to the general public, the singer has already announced some of his collaborations. The single already released, Le cartel des cartables, denounces school bullying, with the participation of Max Cavalera, historic singer of Sepultura, metal juggernaut. “It’s a theme that touches Max, which concerned his family,” explains the singer on the XXL tours.

La marche du monde, a future piece, brings together the writer Amélie Nothomb and Serj Tankian, singer of System of a Down. “This song deals with conflicts in the world, with this propensity of humans to get on each other’s faces, a subject that Serj Tankian has already addressed in his songs,” he continues. Amélie Nothomb is a fan of groups like System of a Down, Tool, and this is the first time that we welcome writers, we will soon announce the name of another great writer who is coming on this album.