When Johnny lit the fire despite the controversies at the Fréjus Nature Base

Granted, the great Johnny had known the Arènes, where he played several times, but this time, it's the Base Nature that will serve as the throne for the king of rock 'n' roll. However, in this year 2016, things aren't starting on a good note. The upcoming concert is causing a lot of ink to flow... and a lot of sap: thirty plane trees are uprooted for the concert.

"You have to know what you want. To organize an event or not? We're planning to welcome 20,000 people... What am I going to say to the people who paid for their tickets? To watch the concert through the branches?" raged Minh Tran Long, head of the then organizer, La Patrouille de l'Événement.

Concern for some, pointless controversy for others, Johnny doesn't care and the magic will work, on this July 2, 2016, attracting many fans. "I was there! It was magnificent ," recalls Philippe Méheut, 66, a Fréjusien who has been a lifelong fan of the star. As the opening act, the Miss America group had already really excited the crowd, it was great. But there were fewer people than expected, however. A bit of a disappointment. To the point that I saw the organizers opening the doors to let people in for free... A shame, we paid so much for entry!"

Mixed success

It's true that the concert, as thunderous, memorable, and impressive as it was for those present, was not as successful as expected. The organizing PR company, then run by friends of Mayor David Rachline, never recovered and later closed its doors. It had been counting on 20,000 spectators and was confident it could balance the books with 10,000 to 12,000 people.

The city and its publicists were satisfied afterward with an "official" figure: 11,000 admissions – in line with the average attendance at concerts that year during the star's "Rester vivant" tour in France. And that was, in fact, the estimated number of fans the teen idol had gathered that evening.

Except that in terms of ticketing, some sources suggested that no more than 7,000 to 8,000 tickets were purchased. Moreover, barely three-quarters of an hour after Johnny took the microphone, the audience gathered outside was invited to approach the stage without paying an entrance fee.

But for many fans, the organizational glitches didn't matter: Fréjus had the prestige of hosting the national star, in such a unique green setting, for two hours of an electric show. It will stay with them forever.

This first big XXL concert at the Base Nature also gave rise, according to the Var-matin newspaper of the time, to many ideas about the Base Nature's capacity to welcome international stars such as, it was said, Madonna, Muse or Coldplay.