The Family Piknik festival, which brings together some 20,000 revelers outdoors every summer, regrets that the decision of the city of Montpellier to withdraw from the event.
According to the organizers, the municipality wishes to end the partnership agreement which provided the festival with technical and logistical support.
It is a festival “with its own economic model”, replies the city.
Beneath the pine trees of the Grammont estate, big names in electronic music are busy on the turntables.
Arms go up, confetti and foam explode on the dance floor.
An ordinary scene at Family Piknik.
But which will, perhaps, no longer take place.
In any case, no longer in Montpellier (Hérault).
The electro festival, which brings together every summer, in the open air, some 20,000 revelers, regrets that the town has decided to disengage from the event, "after months and months of sterile exchanges".
According to the organizers, the city of Montpellier wishes to end the partnership agreement which provided the Family Piknik "technical and logistical support absolutely necessary for the operation of the place that it has made available to us since 2018".
The municipality did not pay a hard and hard subsidy to the festival, it only shared certain costs inherent in bringing the place into compliance, in particular on the toilets or the garbage cans.
That is an aid of 75,000 euros.
Montpellier “against the current”
"If we compare Montpellier to all the other cities that have a festival like ours, whether it's the Eurockéennes de Belfort, the Francofolies in La Rochelle, Montpellier is against the current", regrets Ludovic Rambaud, one of the organizers of the Family Picnik.
“It is a reversal of the situation that we absolutely do not understand”, especially since the epidemic has hit cultural events hard, he continues.
The festival could have survived, by redoubling its efforts, without the help of the municipality.
But “it is a matter of principle.
A partnership works both ways, says Ludovic Rambaud.
Family Piknik brings economic, tourist and cultural benefits to Montpellier.
There is an indisputable benefit for the territory”.
It is a festival "with its own economic model", says the city
Asked by
20 Minutes
, the city of Montpellier indicates that it "has been talking for several months with the organizers", with a view to the 2022 edition of the festival.
“We proposed to the festival to host it on the Grammont site for three days in August, notes the town.
The local authority also asked Montpellier Events to assist with site management, in order to streamline and facilitate the technical reception of the event.
"And if financial support is not envisaged, continues the city, it is because it is a festival" with its own economic model (ticket office, refreshment bar, etc.), welcoming several thousand of festival-goers.
An argument that makes you laugh yellow, among the organizers of the event.
“All the festivals equivalent to Family Piknik have ticket offices, notes Ludovic Rambaud.
The box office is 45 to 50% of the cost of amortization of production costs.
After almost ten years of love, the break seems inevitable, between Montpellier and the Family Piknik.
But the festival, which is to take place on August 6 and 7, is not canceled.
The organizers are talking with other local communities.
And, according to Ludovic Rambaud, many of them have “eyes that shine when we talk about the Family Piknik and are ready to welcome us with open arms”.
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Languedoc Roussillon
Electronic music
Montpellier
Festival
Culture
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