Covid-19 in France: a limit of 5,000 people seated for festivals this summer
The audience for the Vieilles Charrues festival in Carhaix, here in July 2019, should be limited to 5,000 people seated this year because of the Covid-19.
AFP - LOIC VENANCE
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Festivals this summer in France will have to be held in a seated configuration, with a limit of 5,000 spectators, due to the health crisis, the Syndicat des musiques contemporaries (SMA) told AFP on Thursday after an interview with the minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot.
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“
We know a little more about the general framework, but there are still areas of uncertainty.
What is certain is that the 2021 festival season will not be like the others,
”Aurélie Hannedouche of the SMA told AFP.
The head of the Syndicate of current music points among the "gray areas" the question of the authorization of bar / restaurant areas, which will depend on the reopening "
in the restaurant sector
".
"
We want to organize our festivals this summer, but not at any price, we expect a strong word from the President or the Prime Minister who is committed to the recovery of the cultural sector,
" she explains.
Jérôme Tréhorel, director of Vieilles Charrues, explained to AFP that the Ministry of Culture had decided on a "
monthly meeting
" with current music festivals to discuss the evolution of the situation.
"
We could very well switch to a standing configuration if the health situation improved,
" he said.
"
I was very concerned that there would be no announcement at all or that summer festivals would be banned,
" he said.
At the Old Plows, we will adapt.
It will not be a silent summer in Carhaix
(Breton town where the festival takes place),
it will be the summer of reunion
”.
The Parisian festival Solidays (228,000 people in 2019), on the other hand, has already thrown in the towel, without waiting for this meeting on Thursday, because it is used to finance actions of Solidarity Sida, and its organizers feared that it would not be viable.
The 2020 season had been an almost blank season for
current music festivals
.
The idea of seated festivals struggles to pass
The announcement of this tonnage of 5,000 people in seats is however far from unanimous.
"
We are in shock, our backs to the wall,
" said Jean-Paul Roland, director of the Eurockéennes festival and representative of Prodiss (National Union of producers, broadcasters, festivals and theaters in the private sector).
"
The We Love Green festival
(in the Paris region in June)
surveyed its festival-goers
: the answers are clear, 85% of those polled said that they would not come if it was a seated festival
", continues Jean-Paul Roland.
The Eurockéennes, a meeting scheduled for the beginning of July, gathered 128,000 people in 2019 (it was not held in 2020 like almost all current music festivals).
“
It's 5,000 people, seated, and with a distance, without distinction between outdoors and indoors!
That means that we need stands of 10,000 places ...
", still laments the boss of the" Eurocks ".
Its festival has already announced its lineup, which features international headliners like Muse, DJ Snake or Massive Attack.
“
With 5,000 people, it's impossible, which artist would accept?
And then at the Eurocks, the spectator is not there to sit and see a concert.
He is there for a moment of life.
This is what is excluded with the decision of the ministry
”, still regrets Jean-Paul Roland.
(
With
AFP)
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