Daniel Colling, a concert promoter born in 1946, defended at the end of 1976 an idea the profession judged absurd: a festival of French song in a medium-sized town, during the Easter holidays. The first Printemps took place the following year, in Bourges, and within a few years became the great gathering of musical creation in France. To him we also owe the model of the Zéniths, those halls built fast and at a controlled cost.
The story
Born at Lunéville in 1946 into a family of Alsatians exiled to Lorraine after 1870, Daniel Colling made his name as a concert promoter before putting forward, late in 1976, an idea the trade thought absurd: a song festival in the middle of a middling provincial town, over the Easter holidays.
The first Printemps de Bourges was held in 1977, with Alain Meilland and Maurice Frot. Within a few years the festival became the leading French date for new music, and its scheme for spotting young artists — the Inouïs — became the profession's most closely watched springboard. Colling handed it on in 2015, after thirty-nine editions.
Alongside it he devised a kind of venue the country lacked: large adaptable halls, put up fast and on a controlled budget, able to take the tours of amplified music. The Paris Zénith opened in 1984; the model spread across France, and Colling ran those of Nantes and Toulouse.
An Officer of the Legion of Honour in 2014 and a Commander of Arts and Letters in 2001, he died on 27 January 2025 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, at seventy-eight, and was buried on 6 February at Père-Lachaise, in Division 16. The Printemps de Bourges paid tribute to him at its edition that April.
On site, do not miss
A recent and sober grave, in a shaded Division where Patrice Chéreau and Christian Bérard rest.
Visitors' questions
Where is Daniel Colling's grave?
In Division 16 of Père-Lachaise, where he was buried on 6 February 2025. The Division also holds the director Patrice Chéreau and the singer Hervé Cristiani: a small corner of show people.
Patrice Chéreau, Division 16Who created the Printemps de Bourges?
Daniel Colling, with Alain Meilland and Maurice Frot, in 1977. The idea — a song festival in a middling provincial town, over the Easter holidays — was thought absurd; it became the leading date in the French calendar for new music.
Hervé CristianiWho was behind the Zénith halls?
Daniel Colling. In the 1980s he designed large adaptable venues, put up fast and on a tight budget to take amplified music on tour. The Paris Zénith opened in 1984, and the model spread across France.
Bruno Coquatrix, the OlympiaWhich other hall-builders rest at Père-Lachaise?
Bruno Coquatrix, who made the Olympia the benchmark stage of French song, and Joseph Oller, founder of the Moulin Rouge. With Daniel Colling, three generations of impresarios who shaped the stages of Paris.
Joseph Oller, the Moulin RougeAudio guide to Père Lachaise: the best unusual guided tour!
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