Marie Sabot appears within the institutional universe of We Love Green, after her distinction in the National Order of Merit. The portrait tightens the focus on the co-founder, a figure of the festival’s cultural and ecological identity. Credits: Philippe Levy / We Love Green, LinkedIn.
We Love Green opens its 15th edition this Friday, June 5, 2026, at the Bois de Vincennes in Paris. The ambition goes beyond the musical lineup. Through Sunday, June 7, the festival places its Think Tank at the center of its cultural promise. It aims to combine concerts, ecology, and social debates without reducing the event to a soapbox.
A Stage For Debates In A Music Festival
The Parisian festival remains above all a musical gathering. Its 2026 edition is built on three days of concerts, gastronomy, art, comedy, and talks. But this year’s focus lies in the prominence given to the Think Tank. We Love Green presents it as a big-top installed at the heart of the site, open June 5, 6, and 7.
According to Franceinfo, Marie Sabot advocates for a “space for exchange and not for opinions.” The phrase expresses the balance sought. The festival gives space to political and social topics. But it frames them as a conversational device, rather than a succession of position statements.
The official Think Tank program confirms this shift. We Love Green announces debates, live podcasts, testimonies, comedy formats, and lectures. Themes range from resistances to media narratives to queer struggles. They also cover invisible disability, whistleblowers, food transition, and social networks in politics.
The Think Tank, Twelve Years After The Tipi
We Love Green presents its Think Tank as a format that, over twelve years, has become a stage in its own right. The main point is not only the growth of the device, but the shift of its center of gravity. The festival no longer speaks solely about environmental impact or ecological transition. It now embeds representation, media power, political polarization, and cultural conflicts in its narrative.
This shift is visible in the chosen themes. Anti-racist media, queer struggles, whistleblowers, invisible disability, social networks before 2027, and food transition do not form a simple mosaic. They map out a way of positioning We Love Green as an engaged festival in a broader sense. Ecology thus becomes an entry point to a wider conversation about French society.
This evolution is risky, but it is consistent with the site’s history. We Love Green was built on the idea that a festival could be more than a succession of concerts. In 2026, this ambition scales up. Leisure time also becomes a space where controversies are staged. This shift distinguishes the edition from a mere programming announcement. The ecological imagination slides toward a more political cultural function, in the sense of public debate.
Ecology As A Claimed Foundation
This inflection does not come from nowhere. Since its creation, We Love Green has built its image around eco-responsibility. On its Green page, the festival notably claims an ISO 20121 certification obtained in 2023 and carbon reports. It also cites all-vegetarian catering since 2023 and the reduction of single-use plastic. These are complemented by measures related to waste, energy, water, and biodiversity.
These elements should remain attributed to the festival. They document a claimed positioning and methods, not an independent validation of any environmental performance. Above all, they show that We Love Green has already made organizing the event a field for public discourse. The Think Tank extends this logic. But it shifts it toward topics less consensual than eco-friendly gestures: polarization, media, minorities, mobilizations, and political narratives.
That is the limit. A festival remains an event machine, with capacity, circulation, catering, sponsor, and spectacle constraints. Even We Love Green’s environmental page recalls a sensitive point. Attendee and goods transport account for the two largest emission items in the 2024 report. The debate therefore cannot function as moral varnish on the party. It must bring contradiction, facts, and context. Otherwise, engagement becomes just another element of the experience.
A New Shareholding In The Background
The question also arises in a different industrial context. In July 2025, the festival came under the joint control of Matthieu Pigasse’s Combat group and AEG Presents France. Billboard France then described a majority equity stake of 80%. The stated goal was to strengthen the festival’s international dimension while preserving its artistic and ecological identity.
Nothing allows us to assert that this change in ownership dictates the Think Tank’s programming. The link must therefore be cautious. Yet it illuminates the environment of the 2026 edition. AEG is reinforcing its European festival strategy, while Combat is already expanding its presence in live events and cultural media. When We Love Green speaks of narratives, of culture war and public debates, the framework shifts. Events, music, and media draw closer.
The point is not to suggest a politically imposed line on the festival. It is to observe that the Think Tank becomes a space where three logics meet. It contains We Love Green’s ecological DNA, the draw of a major musical event, and its new media-industrial environment.
The Promise Of Exchange Put To The Test By The Public
The success of this proposition will depend less on the guest list than on the real framework of discussions. The 2026 program offers several concrete tests. The duel on food transition pits Brigitte Gothière of L214 against Bertrand Swiderski of Carrefour. It can produce contradiction if it truly confronts animal advocacy, mass retail, prices, and eating habits. The Amnesty International and Konbini session on media narratives can be useful—provided it brings facts back to the center, rather than only affirming an already convinced audience.
The same issue applies to the more political formats on Sunday. A discussion on social networks and political battles, ahead of 2027, can quickly fall flat. Its interest will depend on its ability to concretely explain their effects on the making of narratives. The dialogue between Asma Mhalla and François Saltiel on hybrid techno-fascism can, for its part, illuminate a heavy term. It will need to define it and anchor it in understandable examples.
For We Love Green 2026, the challenge is therefore to hold two registers at once. The festival must remain a popular, readable, and festive cultural event. It also wants to be a place for critical thinking, in its own words. This dual ambition is not contradictory in itself. It becomes fragile if the language of engagement replaces the demand for information.
The 15th edition thus raises a question broader than its weekend program. Festivals seek to distinguish themselves while their economic model remains under strain. Cultural stages also become places of symbolic confrontation. We Love Green is therefore testing a hybrid form: a music festival that wants to make social debate a full-fledged cultural stage.