Theoretical 4m² per spectator, gauge of 5,000 festival-goers maximum, compulsory health pass… The health rules imposed on festival-goers to stem the spread of Covid-19 are known.
Here is in practice how the Vieilles Charrues organize themselves to combine concerts and the fight against the pandemic.
Spectators dancing standing up, sometimes tight-knit, and never masked.
Since July 8, concert nights have been linked to Vieilles Charrues in an atmosphere whose false innocence recalls 2019, behind the festival year before the appearance of Covid-19.
Only the reduced formula, a single stage and a maximum of 5,000 spectators, reminds us that the 2021 edition is held in a particular context.
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It must be said that in the fight against the pandemic, everything is played out on the outskirts of the festival.
And more precisely before the ticket control and behind the scenes.
For spectators, three possible options to attend the concert: to be fully vaccinated for more than 15 days, to have been tested negative (PCR, antigen or salivary) for less than 48 hours, or to have had Covid-19 less than 6 hours ago. month.
In all cases, they must present proof that they are getting things right.
On-site tests little used by festival-goers
To check their sanitary pass, the Vieilles Charrues have set up a double control airlock: a first check of the sanitary passes is carried out by masked volunteers, before genuinely accessing the festival site and the verification of tickets, around twenty meters further.
For unvaccinated and untested festival-goers, the Vieilles Charrues offer to be tested directly on site.
Civil Protection volunteers carry out antigenic tests next to the control airlock of the sanitary passes.
A system well established in theory, with a result delivered in 15 minutes.
In practice, it is rarely used by festival-goers.
Only a maximum of ten of them are tested on site each evening.
The vast majority of spectators show up with a valid health pass.
One test every 48 hours
It is ultimately behind the scenes that Health Protection has the most work: it tests both volunteers, service providers, journalists, artists and their teams ... In short, each person who accesses the Vieilles Charrues site. , even if they only stay behind the scenes.
Two sites were set up for the tests: one in the press area, the other in the castle of Kerampuil which accommodates the artists' boxes, just behind the stage.
If the artists and their teams arrive and leave on the same day, many of the volunteers and some journalists stay there for several days, sometimes even the 10 days of the festival.
In their case, the festival asks them to repeat their test every 48 hours.
On stage, the artists hardly evoke this particular context. With the exception of Philippe Katerine. Always faithful to his famous zany, he had fun with the situation Sunday night during his concert, licking a giant cotton swab after inserting it into a nose, just as big, installed in the back of the stage, in front of the hilarious festival-goers .