No right of way for the Puy du Fou. After the image of crowded stands during a show, the Vendée park is at the heart of a beginning of controversy. A total of 12,000 people, admittedly masked, were gathered in the stands on Friday. A number that questions, because in France, gatherings are limited to 5,000 people, coronavirus requires.
Faced with the controversy, the management of the park had no other choice than to reduce the number of spectators allowed in the outdoor amphitheater for the emblematic spectacle of the park.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation
"The public authorities had given us the possibility of opening in this form"
From now on, it will be 5,000 people in a single grandstand, and no longer 12,000 like last weekend. An impressive crowd was then seated in three crowded stands, separated by plexiglass. The spectators were seated next to each other, with no free seats between them, although hydroalcoholic gel and masks were still distributed.
However, the director of the park, Nicolas de Villiers defends himself, arguing that the organization is perfectly in the nails of the regulations. "We are not the TGV or the confined metro, so the mask is not mandatory in an outdoor site," says the park director. "We added this measure precisely because in a number of cases we could not respect this famous distance," he continues. "I understand that there are concerns among the French, but I am simply saying that the public authorities had granted us the possibility of opening in this form."
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: three questions on rapid serological tests in pharmacies
> Holidays: should grandparents worry about looking after their grandchildren?
> Coronavirus: in schools, the health protocol will remain the same at the start of the school year
> Coronavirus: the 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
> Coronavirus: what we know about transmission by micro-droplets in the air
Festival organizers denounce double standards
This configuration had in fact been validated by a municipal decree. However, the regional prefect said he had not accepted anything. As a general rule, the maximum capacity for this kind of event is set at 5,000 people. In the region, the organizers of festivals (which have almost all canceled), denounce a double standard system.
Founder of Puy du Fou, Philippe de Villiers has made public an SMS from Emmanuel Macron giving him the green light for the reopening of the park on June 11. A gesture perceived by some as a mark of favoritism.
>> Find all the newspapers of the editorial staff of Europe 1 in replay and podcast here