Thousands of spectators who dance glued to each other, without any respect for barrier gestures ... A large crowd gathered on Saturday evening, for a large outdoor concert organized in Nice, mostly without masks and without any social distancing. The images of this event, relayed on social networks, are now controversial as the authorities and some caregivers have been alerting for several weeks about the risk of a second wave of contamination with Covid-19.
This great concert, as we could see it in the summer, on the seaside, before the health crisis, was organized by the town hall of Nice. The idea was to relaunch the city's event season, thanks to the presence of The Avener, a DJ born in Nice. But faced with reactions on social networks, where Internet users denounce a form of unconsciousness in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, the municipality defends itself.
Nice distance from Nice! # nice06pic.twitter.com / Mw8r1GsKAH
- Jer Crunchant ™ (@jercrunchant) July 11, 2020LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the situation on Sunday, July 12
"This evening was beautiful, it was the sign of a resumption of life"
The town hall of Nice says it has respected the fixed tonnage of 5,000 people. On the side of the prefecture, we recognize that there were difficulties, but for Rémi Récio, the chief of staff of the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, the spectators did not stay long fixed in the same place. Above all, he assumes that he did not force the population to come masked. "We were not going, to impose the wearing of a mandatory mask, to bring 5,000 municipal and national police behind all the young people who were there to meet. We would not have been in a festive moment, in what aspires the population that is to say a resumption of a normal form of life ", argues Rémi Récio.
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"This evening was beautiful, it was the sign of a resumption of life. Let us not forget that this concert takes place two days before a cruel anniversary for the people of Nice," he adds, referring to the attack on the July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais which left 86 dead. This official also indicates that panels and audio messages reminded spectators of the barrier gestures. For the rest, he said it was a question of individual responsibility.