Desired and announced by the Minister of Culture, dedicated to all disciplines, the Estates General of festivals will be held on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 October in Avignon. The occasion to recall that many are today threatened with disappearance whereas they constitute, among other things, essential links of social cohesion.
From the first speech of Roselyne Bachelot, just appointed Minister of Culture, we kept in mind that the word “festival” was spoken after barely three minutes. As if to show that she already knew the extent of the storm facing the thousands of demonstrations forced to cancel, and to signal that the State, alongside communities, would play its full part. Because the increase in the number of festivals since the 1980s, if it has reinforced the support provided by the Cities, Departments or Regions, has resulted in a decrease in State intervention, sometimes taken for a lack of interest .
Joining action with words, Roselyne Bachelot has therefore announced the holding of the Estates General of festivals, “So that next season regains its artistic vitality, its role of democratization and economic irrigation”. Not sure, however, that all will be there in 2021. The health crisis has precipitated an already fragile situation for these events which are essential to the economic life of the territories, to the dynamism of creation and to the development of cultural policies, and which are often – wrongly – considered “profitable”.
Welcome, these States General – organized in seven thematic workshops, from volunteering to diversity, including the place of festivals in the artistic journey – start with a double time constraint: it will be necessary to respond to the emergency situation caused by the epidemic, while thinking about the future. Rethink, question, imagine the festivals of tomorrow. In the meantime, we asked five directors what they expected from these two days of discussions.
Paul Rondin, Deputy Director of the Festival d’Avignon
“This event is desired by many festivals in France, primarily because of the health crisis, but also to remedy a certain lack of interest from the ministry for the festival, which is no longer part of its policy even if it supports some major events, including Avignon. However, we now realize to what extent festivals have contributed to building a public policy for culture, thanks to the decentralization that has taken place since the mid-twentieth century: over the years, France has become a land of festivals. (perhaps even the first in the world), in which local authorities are important players.
These events are carried by teams and personalities so different; There are exciting things at play in terms of proximity, familiarity of the public with the cultural thing or the artistic proposition: the festivals are often held in a festive context, during the holidays, they mark a break with the usual living environment and facilitate access to the work. It is in festivals that the relationship between demand and the popular is proven. The period we went through aroused fear, it is now time to take stock of the situation. “
Marie Sabot, director of We Love Green (Paris)
“Our status has been fantasized for years, we will finally be able to have a constructive discussion. We are seen as purely commercial events, without a cultural mission. However, with the crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, we can see that festivals are sorely lacking in the ecosystem in which they are part (developing artists, technicians, turners, intermittents, etc.). We will also be able to be heard on crucial issues, such as security costs, which are now the responsibility of festivals. On this point, we are waiting for the Ministry of Culture to play the transmission belts with that of the Interior, and weigh in our favor. With decentralization, the prefects have almost the right of life or death on certain festivals, which they can decide to cancel at the last moment. What makes them decision makers of cultural policies in the region.
“In the age of social networks, festivals are the last places where young people meet in real life, forge friendships and relationships.”
These States General will also allow us, I hope, to alert the ministry to the importance of the social mix generated. Festivals are a high place for social mixing, an essential melting pot, a vehicle for structuring youth. In the age of social networks, they are the last places where young people meet in real life, form friendships and relationships. This link, it must be recognized, as well as the confrontation with a lot of musical aesthetics. Music festivals still introduce chance where online music no longer creates it. For the department to hear us on this would be a starting point for working together. “
Béatrice Macé, director of Trans Musicales (Rennes)
“I am awaiting the draft of a consideration that the ministry no longer had for us since 2003 and the national orientation directive, which has removed festivals from its priorities. This resulted in a sharp drop in the number of assisted events. The Drac [directions régionales des affaires cuturelles] kept a focus on festivals but did not prevent this decline. It is also an opportunity to permanently forget the initiatives without a future: I am thinking, for example, of the Cohen report on festivals in 2016, which received little media coverage and had no effect; I am finally thinking of the appointment, in 2018, of a “Monsieur festivals” [le haut fonctionnaire Serge Kancel] which did not lead to anything concrete.
The attention paid to festivals is not limited to the question of financial support: we can work on the front and beyond the budget, on advice, on the very contents of the program… I hope for a working relationship healthy, carrying a new dynamic for the sector. Because, for seventeen years, the fragility of festivals has turned into precariousness: with the globalization of music, the price of transfer contracts have increased, as have fees, and security costs have continued to rise. grow (even more with the Covid-19 pandemic). The ministry must understand that if the festivals are brewing a lot of money, that does not mean that their situation is in good shape. “
Liliane Schaus, director of Uzès Danse
“Our event is backed up by the activity of the National Choreographic Development Center, which I also manage. During the year, we build a season, deploy a “mobile studio” (place of residence) throughout the territory, carry out artistic and cultural education actions… and the festival is the fireworks display of the season! The fact remains that the development of an artistic season and that of a festival respond to very different logics, but are constantly intertwined. For the first, we are counting on an audience of regulars, and regular meetings. For the festival, either we adopt a “big bang” logic, or we follow artists whose repertoire we present over several seasons.
“A festival is a crucial time for artists, who enjoy significant visibility with the public but also professionals.”
The program must be completed in December (for an event that takes place in June), and in January – at the same time as the season – we enter the organization. It is a crucial time for artists, who enjoy significant visibility with the public but also with professionals … This system has been undermined by the crisis, but these States General are perhaps the occasion to question us on this model, and its viability. “
Laurence Herszberg, director of Séries Mania (Lille)
“I welcome this initiative, which recognizes that we have all been affected, and allows us to come together, all disciplines combined, to think about what we can build for tomorrow. When the cancellation of Series Mania was imposed, we used this ordeal to try to transform the constraint into an opportunity. The constraint ? This is because no one, at the present time, can say how we will find ourselves physically, even though this criterion is the essence of a festival. What is a festival if not the place where the public connects with the artists, whether on a stage or through the big screen. We are therefore preparing the next “face-to-face” edition.
The opportunity? It is also to invent hybrid forms. The confinement showed that it was possible to discover a creation, whether musical, theatrical, serial … at home. And paradoxically, it allows us to reach more people, since we exceed the capacity of a room. We must therefore combine the two: we are working on it. It also involves action, for Séries Mania, throughout the Hauts-de-France region: I want to create an ecosystem around series, imagine a year-round establishment, actions for the most disadvantaged, training … The time of the festival would be the culmination. “
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