The return of the kletches and the masqueours.
After three editions disrupted by the Covid-19, the Dunkirk carnival began this Sunday with a thousand revelers who marched in disguise in Cappelle-la-Grande, in the North.
This is the first tape of the carnival season which continues until mid-April.
"It's happiness, we missed it so much," says Sébastien Demoulin, a 42-year-old cook, in fur, a hat with gigantic pheasant feathers and black sequined makeup in the streets of Cappelle-la-Grande, on the outskirts of Dunkirk, where the inaugural party was held.
“We missed the carnival so much!
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“We bring out the cletches [costumes] and here we go again!
The carnival is life…”.
As is the tradition of Flanders, locals and visitors a day are disguised.
The masquerours (persons in disguise) meet in private homes or institutions opening their doors for the occasion, and parade in the street in a "band", in lines arm-in-arm-in-behind behind the drum major and the clique ( the orchestra) who sing the traditional tunes taken up by the crowd.
“We missed the carnival so much!
Last night I said to myself, it has to start again, otherwise I'm going to freak out, ”says Christian Deroo, a retired butcher, wearing a jacket made of 1,500 plastic caps paired with orange tights and vertiginous heeled sandals.
"It's a reunion," said the socialist mayor of Cappelle-la-Grande, Julien Gokel, to AFP.
We feel a need for cohesion, and to get out of a gloomy daily life to live a fraternity that goes beyond all social divisions.
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Waiting for the herring jet, February 19
The activities, such as the concert of the Prouts, the star group of the carnival, and a qualifying event for the world championship of the cry of the seagull, were full despite two matches of the Coupe de France in Dunkirk, opposing local teams to clubs of Ligue 1.
The 2020 edition of the carnival was interrupted along the way by the confinement, the 2021 edition still canceled due to Covid19, and the 2022 edition suspended by the mayors due to an outbreak of the pandemic.
Some bands had nevertheless improvised, the opportunity to find “the creative, spontaneous and participative side of carnival”, underlined Christophe Paulino, the singer of Prouts.
The flagship event of the carnival is the herring throw scheduled for Dunkirk on February 19, which usually brings together tens of thousands of carnival-goers in front of the town hall of the port city.
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