Les Rencontres Trans Musicales (generally referred to as Les Transmusicales de Rennes) is a music festival that lasts for 3 or 4 days. It is held annually in December. The festival takes place in Rennes, Brittany, France. Since the festival's beginning, it has been renowned for revealing the "next big thing" in music. The festival has become one of the most significant musical events in Europe, attracting over 62,000 people in 2013. It attracted over 80 groups and artists from over 26 nationalities and music industry professionals coming from all continents. Historical Les Rencontres Trans Musicales, often called Les Trans, was created in 1979 by Béatrice Macé, Jean-Louis Brossard, Hervé Bordier (until 1996), Jean-René (until 1989), and other music students. The association was initially in debt, which led to programming a benefit concert. The first concert took place in la salle de la Cité in June. Twelve bands performed on two nights to an audience of approximately 1800 people. The second concert was in December 2013. Jean-Louis Brossard is the artistic director and Sandrine Poutrel is the production manager. Jean-Louis Brossard and Béatrice Macé together lead Les Rencontres Trans Musicales. From the first concerts, before the word 'festival' had been attached to the event, the artistic bias of the line up was toward originality and new artistic forms. The artists who participated in the festival would often rise to the top of the music charts within a few months following their performance. Björk, Ben Harper and Lenny Kravitz all performed for the first time in public in the festival. It is considered that the festival boosted the popularity of Étienne Daho, Arno, Stephan Eicher, Les Négresses Vertes, Nirvana, Bérurier Noir, Denez Prigent, Daft Punk, Amadou & Mariam, Birdy Nam Nam, Justice, Fugees, Stromae, London Grammar and many other bands. In 2004, the festival moved to the Parc Expo, close to Rennes Bretagne Airport. Some concerts are still organized in the town of Rennes. In 2004, the festival moved to the Parc Expo Since 1979, TRANS has shown the ability to capture the musical zeitgeist and to maintain with it a combination of discovery and influence. TRANS exported itself to China, Norway, Czech Republic and Russia. On 8 December 2010, l'Association des Trans Musicales launched a website that recounts the history of the festival. Line-up Striking artists: 1979 : Marquis de Sade 1980 : Étienne Daho, L’Orchestre Rouge 1981 : Carte