The Montreux festival on France Télé is over!

The chain has decided not to renew its funding for this new year.

A decision in addition to the cancellation of the December edition because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The director of the famous comedy festival, Yann Renoard, expressed his dissatisfaction on Thursday morning in the "Culture-Médias" program on Europe 1. 

The Montreux laughter festival in Switzerland is one of the biggest events in French-speaking humor.

Last December, it was canceled due to health restrictions due to the coronavirus.

So the whole team looked for a solution to postpone the festival to spring 2021. It was without counting on France Télévisions which decided "to abandon in open country" the festival, according to the words of the director of Montreux, Yann Renoard, Thursday, on Europe 1. 

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The festival organizer had hoped to postpone the event to the end of May, but that is therefore falling apart.

It had the support of Swiss public television and the Comédie channel, but France Télévisions refused to postpone its funding for that date.

"That they want to put an end to a commercial relationship which dates back ten years, it hurts, but somewhere it can be understood on condition that we put the forms into it, launches Yann Renoard, annoyed, This which is more complicated is to take advantage of a cancellation that is not our fault, and to use this reason to leave the deal without honoring the last year, obviously without paying us anything and leaving us a little to our own fate ". 

"We had one knee on the ground, they pushed us a little bit"

However, the director of the Montreux festival had put a lot of hope on his historic partner.

"When we contacted them, we were sure that, like the others, they were going to respond. We had one knee on the ground, they pushed us a little bit I think," he breathes. 

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According to him, France Télévisions motivated its decision by the probable shutdown of France 4, which was broadcasting this show and the need to free up leeway to launch new programs.

The festival is therefore now looking for another broadcaster.