• The 23 opened its doors in September 2020, before attracting the wrath of the neighborhood, complaining about the nuisances.

  • The association, which no longer welcomes the public since July, asks the town hall for “rehousing and reimbursement solutions”.

The atmosphere is no longer festive at 23. Opened in September 2020 as part of the "15 places to reinvent" initiated by the town hall of Nantes, this cultural place of a new kind is already living its last hours.

In any case, the refurbished and revamped former Bretagne room had not welcomed the public since July 2021, after complaints of nuisances had accumulated.

The exhibition openings, artistic performances, but above all the DJ sets and festive evenings, which sometimes continued on the sidewalk late into the night, were not to the taste of the neighborhood of this residential district.

So much so that after several attempts at mediation, mixed with the health crisis, the town hall preferred to end the agreement which linked it to Big City Life,

Once the "disappointment" was over, the story could have ended there.

But today, the associative actor is asking the town hall to account, which had given him the keys with great fanfare, hoping that it would become "a place open to all".

“We made the shared observation that the neighborhood was unsuitable for our activities, but we have been waiting for rehousing and reimbursement solutions which have not arrived, worries Nicolas Bénardeau, the director of Big City Life.

There have been many discussions since July but we still have no response.

Time is running out, the future of the association is at stake, and in particular of all the “events” part, which could stop there.

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Financial audit

Further weakened by a recent article from

Médiacités

pointing out management errors, the association had requested a new subsidy from the town hall in order to be able to continue to have the room to accommodate artists in residence during the day.

After a refusal, she agrees to pack her bags but today demands a new base as well as the payment of 78,600 euros, the equivalent of "reimbursement of the bank loan and the costs incurred for the development of the place ".

"We are ready to study it, to accompany the closure to avoid the" dry exit ", but we will not sign a blank check", warns Mahaut Bertu, assistant (PS) for associative life at the town hall of Nantes, who requested a financial audit of the association's accounts before deciding.

"It was a collective risk-taking, which exists in any experimental project of this type", continues the elected official, who regrets however that "certain commitments of Big City Life have not been implemented", according to her, in particular "the creation of an animation committee with local residents".

To "end on a positive note", the association announces the organization of four festive weekends at the end of April and in May, without having officially obtained the approval of the town hall.

"We do it completely legally, to distribute the artists we have received in residence, and to bring in cash for the future", defends Nicolas Bénardeau.

Big City Life, which claims to have welcomed at 23 more than 10,000 spectators in around thirty organized events, should have left the premises in June.

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  • Nantes

  • Pays de la Loire

  • Culture

  • Closing

  • Hobbies