The Francofolies de la Rochelle festival, one of the major events for current summer music in France, has been canceled due to the consequences of the health crisis linked to the new coronavirus, organizers said on Tuesday.
"Following the declarations of the President of the Republic, this Monday, April 13, not authorizing the holding of festivals until mid-July, the 36th edition of the Francofolies de La Rochelle, which was to be held from 10 to 14 July 2020, is therefore postponed from July 10 to 14, 2021 ", write the organizers. The Charentais festival gathered 150,000 festival-goers last year.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Tuesday April 14
Serial cancellations
The big festivals of this type give up one after the other. This Tuesday, the Eurockéennes (scheduled from July 2 to 4, 128,000 spectators in 2019), the Main Square (July 3-5, 115,000), Art Rock (May 29-31, 78,000) or the Nuits de Fourvière (2- July 31, 190,000) threw in the towel. Others had not waited for the intervention of the Head of State on Monday evening to cancel, such as the Printemps de Bourges (200,000 spectators in 2019), which was to be held at the end of April, the Hellfest (June, 180,000 spectators), the Lollapalooza (July, 95,000 spectators) and Solidays (June, 228,000 spectators).
The Vieilles Charrues (July 16-19, 270,000) could be next on the list. This is a textbook case: the Breton festival expected nearly 300,000 people from July 16, the day after the lifting of the ban on large gatherings. "The holding of the festival, I don't believe in it," says its director Jérôme Tréhorel. "I will ask in the next few hours for a meeting of a board of directors to undoubtedly make the most painful but most reasonable decision there is." "We will not take any risk for the staff and the festival-goers", underlines Jérôme Tréhorel.