INTERVIEW
It is one of the last sectors not to have been deconfigured. Discotheques should not reopen before September, at least, to the chagrin of professionals in the sector. 43,000 direct jobs are affected. "It is not only the nightclubs that are impacted, but all the places where we have the right to dance: that makes 100,000 direct jobs and 50,000 indirect jobs", specifies at the microphone of Europe 1, Thierry Fontaine, the president of the night branch of the Union of hotel trades and industries. He figures at 480 million euros the losses recorded by the sector since the beginning of the crisis, and estimates that half of the 1,500 nightclubs in France are now threatened with bankruptcy.
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However, meetings have been held between representatives of the sector and members of the government to try to remedy this situation. "We realized that our professions were not specially known," deplores Thierry Fontaine. "What bothers the scientific council with the nightclubs is the dance floor as we know it. But we are ready to make efforts on it", explains Thierry Fontaine, who owns two nightclubs in Lyon.
"They don't want people from all over France to meet up with strangers in the middle of a track, to dance and for droplets to be projected." According to him, the professionals would be ready to give up outright the dancefloor to be able to welcome the public again.
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Make download of StopCovid compulsory
"We are not there to worsen a situation, we are aware of the risks. [...] We have solutions, an analysis, an expertise to improve what is happening in terms of deconfinement", continues Thierry Fontaine who notably proposes to put set up, in sufficiently large clubs, partitioned tables so that people who arrive together do not mix with other groups, or even make it compulsory to download the StopCovid application at the entrance to the boxes.
The DJ's too great silence towards the profession
Another point raised by Thierry Fontaine: the lack of support from the artistic community. While many tribunes signed by personalities have circulated to request the reopening of theaters or cinemas, this official deplores the silence of DJs, including France has some big names. "We were disappointed by the big French international DJs. We did not find that there was a lot of support. Maybe they wrote to themselves, but the profession did not seen, "he taunts.