• The public market which decided on the attribution of the illumination show of the Fourvière hill in 2018 would have been stained with irregularities.

  • An investigation suspects a crime of favoritism between the public market and the scenographer Damien Fontaine, to the detriment of the artist Milosh Luczynski.

  • Other people are in the sights of the investigation, including the director of the Festival of Lights, Jean-François Zurawik, who died a year ago.

A preliminary investigation carried out by the Lyon public prosecutor's office concludes with the possibility of an offense of favoritism in the public market of the 2018 edition of the Lyon Festival of Lights, reports AFP from a judicial source.

According to the investigation of the judicial customs service, negotiations during the negotiation phase of the market would have allowed the scenographer Damien Fontaine to be selected in the call for tenders to the detriment of another artist, Milosh Luczynski.

The file was sent this week to the people involved.

A market marred by irregularities

As it stands, the investigation considers that the public market which decided to award the Fourvière hill illumination show would be tainted with irregularities.

The investigators pointed to exchanges in the midst of the negotiation phase between the artist Damien Fontaine, his producer and Jean-François Zurawik, at the time director of the famous event.

The scenographer suggests that he will modify the content of his project a few days before the final negotiation meeting.

Threatened with concealment of favoritism, Damien Fontaine denies having benefited from information during the call for tenders.

The scenographer, who won several awards at the Festival of Lights, is currently signing a sound and light at the Saint-Jean cathedral in Lyon.

The sued director died in 2020

Investigators believe that lawsuits could also concern the producer, for concealment of favoritism and complicity in favoritism, and a project manager from the city's events department.

Emblematic personality of the Festival of Lights, Jean-François Zurawik died in October 2020, but the procedure continues.

According to the newspaper

Le Monde

, which revealed the case Thursday, November 4, the lawyer will ask the prosecution to hear the elected officials in post at the time at the town hall of Lyon.

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