"When we say + the festivals are resuming +, we must not think that we have regained the growth of 2019 before the health crisis. This is not the case", summarizes for AFP Malika Seguineau, head of Prodiss, union National Music and Variety Show, met at the Francofolies in La Rochelle.

This festival was full, as was the Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix (280,000 spectators this summer, "we will be in the green", according to its director Jérôme Tréhorel).

But this is not the case everywhere.

And the summer meetings went through occasional turbulence this year (heat wave, torrential rain, artists canceling for Covid-19) but above all structural.

Malika Seguineau describes a "slow and difficult recovery".

"The French have changed their behavior, they buy tickets very late, saying to themselves: + If I have the Covid, I will have to cancel +, and also sometimes already have three postponed shows in their hands", details-t- she.

The Vieilles Charrues festival in Carhaix-Plouguer in Finistère, July 17, 2022 FRED TANNEAU AFP

The leader of Prodiss also advances a "context which is not at the party between war in Ukraine, presidential election in France - always a suspended time - and the question of purchasing power".

"Waterlogging and Rushing"

After two summers at half mast, or almost, the festivals wanted to work twice as hard and offer exceptional posters.

If the Hellfest (Clisson, Loire-Atlantique) won its bet (350 groups, 420,000 spectators), the Aluna Festival (Ruoms, Ardèche) saw too much with four days.

And too many headliners (Fire! Chatterton, Julien Doré and Angèle the same evening), as its president Jean Boucher said on the microphone in front of the public.

Guillaume Aldebert during a photo shoot at Hellfest in Clisson in Loire-Atlantique, June 26, 2022 Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP / Archives

"It's crazy the number of festivals. Artists' fees are rising and ticket prices have not increased", notes for AFP Gérard Pont, boss of "Francos".

"Between postponements, new projects, there are more proposals, which cost more to organize, and no more public with less purchasing power. It does not work", confirms to AFP Jérôme Tréhorel, director "Ploughs".

At the end of June, there were the same dates for the Aluna Festival, Hellfest, Solidays in Paris and the concert of the behemoths of Iron Maiden in Paris.

Same thing in mid-July between the Francofolies, the Vieilles Charrues, the Lollapalooza in Paris and the Coldplay concert in the capital.

“There was congestion and precipitation. Programming in the same Vianney region 15 times does not work”, underlines Malika Seguineau.

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson at the Copenhell festival in Copenhagen on June 18, 2022 Torben Christensen Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Archives

"In the context of the war in Ukraine, the health crisis, the festivals - these cities which are emerging from the ground - have been confronted with the shortage of raw materials and the fees of artists - deprived of touring for two years - which are increasing : we arrive at an increase in costs between 15% and 20%", she adds.

"Matt Events"

"In this global context of inflation, shortages, events are going to the carpet, with production costs increasing up to 20-30%", figures for his part Jérôme Tréhorel.

The RhinoFéRock festival, in Vaucluse, which was to program Benjamin Biolay, Gaëtan Roussel or Hoshi, has thus canceled for all these reasons.

Without forgetting, as Gérard Pont says, “many pros (technicians) who retrained during the health crisis, hence competition between festivals for a know-how that has become rare and expensive”.

"Even being complete, some festivals will be in deficit", warns Jérôme Tréhorel.

Izia Higelin in concert during the 30th edition of the Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix-Plouguer in Finistère, July 16, 2022 FRED TANNEAU AFP / Archives

Prodiss will "take stock in September", with Malika Seguineau already in sight to "reflect on an economic model perhaps at the end of a cycle".

"We are not asking to live on a drip, but we are saying: + We need a stronger CNM (Centre national de la musique), to respect its commitment to develop structuring support programs, to help us take risks. ".

© 2022 AFP