Paris (AFP)

"We resume, we reopen." The Jazz Festival at La Villette in Paris will finally be maintained but in a very reduced version, with a concert per evening the first two weekends of September, indicates to AFP one of the programmers Vincent Anglade.

"We built the festival in accordance with the health regulations imposed today by the government," explains the man who is with Frank Piquard one of the two programmers of an event which is in its 19th edition in its current form.

Result: one armchair out of two will be occupied, there will be no standing concert, only one per evening, without intermission or refreshment bar, the mask will be mandatory from the entrance to the hall until the spectator settles in square.

Consequently, the total tonnage this year, unless new government measures are less restrictive, will be 6,000 seats. For the previous edition, around 30,000 tickets were sold for concerts organized in the various halls of La Villette Park.

And the headliners this year, after the rain of cancellations of star musicians from the United States or Africa, will be largely French or neighboring countries: Pierre de Bethmann, Bojan Z, Baptiste Trotignon and the Brussels resident Eric Legnini for an opening evening on Friday September 4 under the sign of the piano, Michel Portal (bass clarinet, saxophone, bandoneon ...) on the 6th, the flagship group of the new British jazz scene Gogo Penguin on the 5th.

Jazz à La Villette nevertheless took the risk of keeping in its programming the Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca or the Chilean saxophonist living in New York Melissa Aldana.

In these very specific conditions, the musicians also accepted a reduction in their fees, taking into account the reduced gauges.

"But these could be revised upwards if we are able to accommodate more spectators", specifies Vincent Anglade, who is hopeful that the reception conditions of the public will still be relaxed by the start of the festival.

"The news in September, it will not be to present recordings, but to put the musicians on stage and the spectators in the halls, in order to find this ritual of the concert", estimates the programmer.

The peripheral rooms (La Dynamo in Pantin, the Studio de l'Ermitage, l'Atelier du Plateau) generally associated with Jazz in La Villette will still be.

© 2020 AFP