- The cancellation of the Avignon festival is experienced as a real blow for theater professionals, deprived of this "market" for live performance.
- It is also a test for the Avignon economic fabric, to the point that the mayor requests exceptional assistance from the State.
Olivier Py wanted to believe it to the end. Just last week, when the cancellations of French festivals were raining, the director of the Avignon festival said he was "worried but not pessimistic", as if he clung to the idea that the coronavirus could save this major event performing arts that take up its summer quarters in the city of the Popes every year.
But this Monday evening, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron came to sound the death knell. No festival will be tolerated until mid-July, and the Avignon festival, which is held precisely throughout the month of July, cannot escape the rule. In the process, the festival teams resolve to cancel in turn. Unsurprisingly, the resounding announcement does not leave professionals in the performing arts unmoved.
A theater market
You should indeed know that in addition to the programming of "In", the official festival, the Avignon festival brings together hundreds and hundreds of professionals around the "Off" festival, a sort of huge market where live performance professionals come offer shows and theater programmers and other producers who sneak into the audience to buy the best plays to program in their establishments next month.
It is therefore an entire economy that is a little more fragile, and with them many professions in uncertainty, from actors to theater owners to the precious press officers. "The Avignon festival provided 80% of our income for a young Parisian company like us," explains Olivier Schmitt, artistic director of the company Les joyeux de la Couronne. The only way for us to make money, to make profits, is to sell dates, and it is done 99% of the time during the Avignon festival, during which we do a real job of visibility. "
A blow to the economy of Avignon
"We are very sad," says Aurélie Pisani, administrator of the Black Oak theater, one of the key theaters of the festival. This decision will have economic consequences. The festival represents 30% of our revenues, and ticketing, in good years, generates several thousand euros. But we will all suffer. It's all Avignon that suffers! "
The cancellation of the Avignon festival is indeed a cataclysm for the local economic fabric. "It is obviously a blow for our city," deplores the mayor of Avignon, Cécile Helle, in a press release. […] I fully understand what this cancellation means and represents for a number of economic players in our city whose activity depends greatly on the festival. I am thinking of course of tourism professionals, first of all hoteliers, managers of hotel residences and campsites, owners of guesthouses… But I also think of cafes, bars, restaurants and shops which run throughout the year. year our historic center and our neighborhoods. "
Restaurants "on the edge"
The city already experienced such a mishap in 2003, after a major social conflict. But the situation here is different, according to Patrice Mounier, the president of the Union of Trades and Hotel Industries of Vaucluse. “In 2003, despite the cancellation, there were people, who were not festival-goers, but who came to discover Avignon in the summer. We were there, in front of our establishments, waiting for the customer, so-so, but we were there. There, it will surely not be the case. "
And sigh: "This cancellation is an economic disaster that we dared not imagine. I received several calls from upwind hoteliers who received cancellation requests in a mess. Already that they have no cash, the deposit constituted the little available cash… I think that, unfortunately, the regional chamber of commerce and industry, which set up a special number, is going to have a lot of calls from people who feel on the brink. There are people who only count on it. The July recipe is so important! It can last six to eight months, and the rest is done a little with Easter, summer, bridges. But Easter, summer, bridges, given the situation, it's dead! "
"The city of Avignon will not be able to face this ordeal alone," warns Cécile Helle, who requests "exceptional assistance from the State and local authorities". Next Monday, an exceptional board of directors of the Avignon festival management association will meet to determine and discuss the cancellation plan. When contacted, the festival teams said that they would not speak until after this crucial meeting.
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