Will festival-goers be able to listen to music this summer?
The answer is "yes, but ..." The government ruled on Thursday, February 18, announcing that a maximum of 5,000 people seated would be authorized in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the side of the organizers, the reactions are diverse.
"A cancellation of Hellfest seems inevitable", said Friday Ben Barbaud, patron of this festival.
This event specializing in metal, scheduled for June in Clisson in Loire-Atlantique, attracted 180,000 festival-goers in 2019 (and had been canceled in 2020).
"A decision will be made in the coming days, I have to see my teams and talk with my international counterparts, but 5,000 metalheads [heavy metal fans] sitting and distanced, it's not possible" , continues Ben Barbaud.
The director of Hellfest underlines that this festival is the one which accumulates "the most handicaps": "an international program at 90%, 20% of the public coming from the international, fifteen hours of concerts a day, a giant campsite and the public who drinks the most beers [while no decision has been taken to reopen the bar areas, editor's note] ".
"If some festival colleagues are delighted with the framework announced Thursday by the Minister of Culture, I am one of those who are not delighted: it is still the youth who will spend a rotten summer", judge- he.
He knows that depending on the evolution of the epidemic, the framework could become less restrictive.
But "if the festivals of modest size can change everything a month before they are held, the big ones like Hellfest cannot wait until May to organize themselves".
"It's already great"
Gérard Pont, boss of the Francofolies, scheduled for mid-July in La Rochelle (Charente) (150,000 festival-goers in 2019), is on the other hand one of those who welcome the announcements of the Minister of Culture, as "excellent news".
"Last year, in April, we were nowhere, without a decision, and here we are in February and we are told that there may be festivals, it's already great", he explains. .
"There are plenty of artists who dream of playing in front of 5,000 people, and then our programming is not international, so we can adapt, it's only positive and the situation can, who knows, can -be still improving within five months, ”adds Gérard Pont.
The Vieilles Charrues festival (270,000 spectators in 2019) sees things positively.
"We will adapt. It will not be a silent summer in Carhaix [Breton town where the event takes place], it will be the summer of reunion," its director Jérôme Tréhorel said on Thursday.
The Printemps de Bourges, at the beginning of May [200,000 people in 2019], had already anticipated and left its largest enclosure with 10,000 people.
The Parisian festival Solidays (228,000 spectators in 2019), on the other hand, already threw in the towel last week, because this meeting is used to finance actions of Solidarity Sida and its organizers feared that the organization would cost more than it. would have reported to the charity.
The current context makes it impossible to organize the festival in its usual form.
But IMPOSSIBLE is not #Plows!
Les Vieilles Charrues present 10 concert evenings, from July 8 to 18, 21!
➡️https: //t.co/uTaesKHxRy pic.twitter.com/AhFDVm8F50
- Old Plows (@Charrues) February 19, 2021
With AFP
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