Musicians, falconers, infantrymen and other buccaneers, around 400 representatives of the re-enactment trades went on a crusade in the streets of Avignon on Saturday to denounce the consequences of health restrictions.
It is to beat the pavement that they put on their chasubles of clerks or their capes of rascals. Vikings, knights, pirates or serfs: some 400 people, enthusiasts or professionals of historical reenactments, marched on Saturday in the streets of Avignon to alert on the difficulties encountered by the sector because of health constraints due to Covid-19.
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«Let’s go kick the English variant out of France», «Sire! We have big!», «Witch, I’m supposed to die at the stake, not starve», «Living history is us, don’t let us starve», «Culture isn’t just about opera“: On their placards, the demonstrators displayed their dismay and their concerns in the streets of downtown Avignon, noted AFP journalists.
Many associations are breaking down, people who lived thanks to these events are dying, we cannot accept that.
Patrick Duval
«Many associations are breaking down, people who lived thanks to these events are dying, we cannot accept that. In the historical re-enactment, we never do a demonstration like that but there we launch a cry of distress», Explained to AFP Patrick Duval, municipal councilor of Morières-lès-Avignon and organizer of the medieval festival of the Rose d’Or.
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Troops “in agony”
According to the elected official, the situation is critical, especially since many professionals in reconstructions, craftsmen in particular, cannot claim intermittence. “They are all in agony, they are dying. The troops are in the process of dissolving completely because they can no longer offer their members outings or parties, the small craftsmen who follow us on all our medieval festivals, on all the markets are literally in agony, they are closing down one after the other and things are going very badly because they no longer have the right to anything, the intermittents of the show have been promised a blank year but there are a lot of them who do not fit in the boxes», He lamented.
«Today it’s been over a year since we can no longer practice our profession, we can no longer live (…) it is important that we are all here today, and that we be heard, may our governments, may our government finally understand that it is slowly killing us», Said Isabelle Corci, director of a company of falconers in Alès. Arrived in front of the Palais des Papes after parading through the historic city center, the demonstrators all stretched out on the ground to fake their deaths, AFP journalists noted.
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