The traditional projection of lights on Strasbourg Cathedral on July 3, 2015 -
PATRICK HERTZOG AFP
A deliberation concerning the call for tenders for the summer festivities in Strasbourg is on the agenda of the next City Council on Monday.
The traditional sound and light show on the cathedral may not be presented this year.
If the city explains a lack of visibility in view of the health situation and the desire to have "an open call for tenders" to ensure a minimum of events, the opposition denounces a lack of appetite for the attractiveness of Strasbourg.
It's not clearly said, almost a subliminal message.
But what has been underpinning the Strasbourg political debate for some time has been whether or not the new environmental team intends to break with traditions, want a decrease in mass tourism or simply conceive of life and cultural events differently. which punctuate the city… At the risk, according to the opposition, of weakening the attractiveness of the city.
After the Christmas market, it is the turn of the summer show, the sounds and lights projected on the cathedral for 20 years which animates the discussions.
The interpretation of a deliberation that will be proposed at the next Council this Monday is already sparking.
Former first deputy Alain Fontanel (LREM), now elected from the municipal opposition, posted his indignation on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
The elected official reports that the city plans not to renew the sound and light show on the cathedral this summer.
Enough to immediately react a number of worried Internet users who even see in this announcement the desire to destroy the attractiveness of the city and even beyond the end of Entzheim airport or even that of the Christmas market ... Alain Fontanel especially criticizes a decision that sounds like "the rejection of the concept of attractiveness and tourism" and "unrelated to the health situation".
Scattering or open invitation to tender?
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, he stresses that the deliberation submitted Monday "does not mention the spectacle of the cathedral" but only indicates leisure, cultural and sporting activities.
Not a concentrated show at the cathedral.
"A problem" according to Alain Fontanel, because the mapping "usually mobilizes most of the funds, ie around 800,000 euros, including 350,000 euros from the partner club.
"Companies which financed it because there was visibility, a unity of place" maintains Alain Fontanel.
“The bursting of the festivities planned in the four corners of Strasbourg can help to animate the city but not to make it shine in France and in Europe.
"
Without formally specifying whether the sound and light show, once all the security and health constraints have been lifted, will be the priority of the summer festivities, Guillaume Libsig, deputy mayor of Strasbourg in charge of events policy, prefers to talk about 'an open call for tenders.
“We are in a permanent evolution anyway.
Mapping has been evolving for years.
We move forward with our time.
If we put all our eggs in one basket for a major cathedral operation, we run the risk of outright cancellation and not being able to do anything.
Suddenly, in anticipation, we prefer to launch a call for tenders that does not impose any form.
"A call which only concerns 2021 still recalls the elected official and which allows" all the proposals, even that of a candidate who wants to make a sound and light on the cathedral ".
But a call for tenders "which is not exclusively focused on that.
So we are exploring new formats, we are not forbidding ourselves anything, to get out of the cancellation postponement scheme.
"
If nothing is defined and everything remains possible, one thing seems quite precise.
The theme of the festivities this year will be the Imaginary.
And from the imagination, it seems that a lot is needed until July ...
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