CODA Audio powers Josephine Baker Stage at Fête de l’Humanité

The three-day Fête de l’Humanité is France’s largest popular cultural gathering – and one of its most distinctive. Launched in 1930 as a fundraising event for the newspaper l’Humanité, the festival drew just a thousand people in its first year. Nearly a century later, that number has swelled to a record 800,000 visitors. Part music festival, part political forum, part cultural showcase, Fête de l’Huma blends live performance, debate, art, and film across multiple stages. Run largely by volunteers, it draws stallholders from around the world and attracts leading politicians and journalists alongside its vast, diverse crowds. Headliner discovers how this year’s renewal at Brétigny-sur-Orge saw a CODA Audio system taking care of the Josephine Baker Stage, one of the event’s principal focal points.

Experienced Paris-based event production supplier RegieTek provided the system, which featured CODA’s flagship AiRAY line array, and was designed and overseen by project lead Vincent Luce:

“This was the fourth year in a row that we have supplied a CODA System for the festival,” said Luce. “The AiRAY is a powerful, accurate, and renowned system, which is perfectly suited to the demands of this event. The Josephine Baker Stage alternates between ‘concert’ and ‘electro’ setups; the AiRAY used in conjunction with CODA’s sensor-controlled subs makes it easy to juggle the demands of sharply contrasting musical styles.”

RegieTek supplied a main system of 24 AiRAY and 16 SC2 sensor-controlled subs in ‘end fire’ mode. Added to this, a further nine SCP-F per side in a cardioid arrangement (front-back-front) were combined with a line of 10 SCP-F on the floor to provide even distribution of low frequencies. 

Four ViRAY per side were deployed as infills, with a further four ViRAY at the front of the stage as lipfills to cover the near-field. A pair of HOPS12 opens up the flanks of the stage.

A total of six CODA Audio LINUS T-Rack (12-channel touring rack), each containing three LINUS14D 4-channel DSP amplifiers, with a further four M-Rack (compact 4-channel touring rack), each containing a single LINUS14D DSP amplifier, powered the system.

“We had a very positive reaction from all quarters to the audio,” Luce enthused. “The Alpha 256 stage enabled us to mount all the loudspeakers high enough, one behind the other – AiRAY, SC2, SCP-F – and the sound was excellent. All the speakers were in phase, and in terms of sound pressure and consistency, the outcome was excellent.”