The aligned tables were already ready to welcome a good thousand of guests this Friday evening in a hall of celebrations sporting giant masks of carnival and flowering with sauerkraut, the traditional menu of Friday evening, marking the opening of the Brandons of Payerne. However, while good humor should rather be in order, it was tears of sorrow that ran down the cheeks of the organizers of the largest French-speaking carnival, which was to take place until March 2.
“Following the decision of the Federal Council, the Brandons of Payerne are canceled,” announced the mask committee in the morning. In the holiday hall, everything was ready to host around fifteen Guggenmusiks. In town, the Village de fête, whose canteen spanned the rue de Lausanne to mark the 125th anniversary of the event with dignity, is already being dismantled. On the committee side, the president, Sylvain Hostettler, could not say anything more before a meeting with the representatives of the Commune and the gendarmerie.
“It’s death. It’s already not easy to shoot when all is well. What are we going to do now? ” do we sigh here or there. To avoid food loss, a distribution in the form of portions is mentioned. Can insurance be taken into account to bail out an event with a budget of half a million francs? It was too early to raise this issue on Friday.
In town too, everything was planned in the numerous establishments in Payerne to accommodate hundreds of revelers, for example at the Brasserie du Cerf, a restaurant emblematic of the festivities. “In my bistro, there will be less than 1,000 people, but in town probably more. So, am I allowed to open this weekend, is it a case of conscience? For the moment, I don’t know, it will depend on the authorities, “sighs the boss Léonce Huguet, who announced that he would close his shop on Tuesday to devote himself to his catering activity.
“We are sad for everyone. This decision unnecessarily amplifies the psychosis, ”plagues Belinda Sartori, a client who nevertheless announces that she wants to go out in the evening. Will the heart be there? Not guaranteed. At a tank manufacturer, whose Sunday procession is also canceled, we regret a decision that fell on Friday at the end of the morning when the problem has been there for weeks and that we had to work hard all week to complete the constructions.
Clearly, the Brandons of Payerne seem to be persecuted by the 1920s. By 1920, the combined epidemics of foot-and-mouth disease and Spanish flu had already led to the cancellation of the carnival.
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Created: 28.02.2020, 12h47
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