Are we going to witness the deconfinement of the live performance for this return? The Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, spoke out for the end of distancing in concert halls and theaters, at least for “seated” shows. Gone are the gauges cut by half and the empty seat between the spectators, who will however continue to wear a mask. The minister pledged to various representatives of the performing arts, whom she met on Wednesday rue de Valois during a series of meetings, to defend this idea at the next Defense Council, the date of which is not yet fixed.
“Reason for hope”
“Roselyne Bachelot has understood our point of view, it is a cause for hope: for us, distancing requires too degraded gauges, we must have gauges at 85%», Malika Seguineau, of Prodiss, union of musical theaters and festivals, reported to AFP. “We believe in the responsibility of spectators, like when they take the metro, train, plane, like when they return to the office in September”, she says. A claim that is also established by comparison with other venues, and in particular by the lack of understanding of a large part of the sector to see that the Puy-du-Fou park had, by prefectural exemption, been able to increase the Last weekend the gauge of its Cinescenies up to 9,000 spectators, almost doubling the maximum of 5,000 people authorized until the end of October. The authorization was withdrawn from them for this weekend, but a request for clarification of the derogatory framework was nevertheless requested from Roselyne Bachelot.
“A very concerned minister”
“We had in front of us a very concerned Minister of Culture, listening to us, with a real desire to defend the sector. She repeated it to us at the beginning of the meeting: she wants to save the performing arts ”, reacted Bertrand Thamin, president of the private theaters union, in the Parisian. Saving is not too strong, the sector has melted three quarters. According to a study published by the ministry in July, “The impact of the Covid-19 crisis [sur la culture] will result in an average decrease in turnover of 25% in 2020 compared to 2019 (from 97 to 74.7 billion euros). The effect will be greatest on the performing arts sector (-72%), heritage (-36%), visual arts (-31%) and architecture (-28%) ”. With the precision of a loss of 4.2 billion euros for the only live performance and a differential of -97% of turnover between April and August compared to the same period in 2019.
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Another request supported by Prodiss concerns the release of an envelope of 300 million euros of aid to bail out businesses in the area. “One in two boxes is threatened. Our sector has been at a standstill for six months, yet it represents 2.8 billion euros in turnover and 135,000 jobs ”, insists Malika Seguineau, whose union is also asking for accompanying measures such as the extension of partial activity measures at least until the end of the year.
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