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Villeurbanne (AFP) – Videos of children projected on buildings, giant red giraffes strolling in musical parade, explosion of sequins … the festivities consecrating Villeurbanne (Rhône) first “French Capital of Culture” for 2022 began Friday evening near Lyon despite the restrictions sanitary facilities.
“Culture here is not and has never been a policy like any other. It has always kept at bay all forms of regressions, of impoverishment, of shrinking of thought”, declared in his inaugural speech, Cédric Van Styvendael, the socialist mayor of Villeurbanne.
At his side, on the forecourt of the famous National Popular Theater (TNP), the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot praised a cultural life “extremely intense in the territories”.
“When I arrived at the Ministry of Culture, I said that I was going to be the Minister of Artists and Territories. Here, I make this commitment a reality,” she added, briefly interrupted by intermittent entertainment workers. .