Threatened by the departure of the two groups, which refuse to play in a city led by the RN, the management of the festival will be looking for a new site.
By Philippe Gagnebet (Toulouse, correspondent)
Boycott threats will have been right with the desires for the moving of the Festival Les Défrelantes. Friday, January 6, the Frontera Production, the company which manages the event scheduled from July 6 to 9, 2023, had aroused many reactions by announcing that the next edition would not take place in Céret (Pyrénées-Orientales) but in Perpignan, The city led by Louis Aliot (national rally, RN). The first to react, the Indochina group estimated, on Saturday January 7, having “been put in front of the fait accompli”. “Last night, the mayor RN of Perpignan tweeted that he was happy to welcome the festival. We expressly ask the surge of the breaks to move this festival to another place, failing which we will cancel our arrival,” said the artists. The president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, reacted to these words by denouncing “a discriminatory and shameful attitude”.
Tuesday, January 10, it was Louise Attaire who announced on social networks her intention not to participate in the event, which brought together 100,000 festival -goers in 2022. “It is a festival that we love, but Moved without us being concerted (…). In the current state of things and in this specific context, we do not want to participate in this event, “explained the group led by Gaëtan Roussel.
The festival team had initially “taken note of the position of the Indochina group to condition, for political questions, their coming to the breaks” and had indicated organizing “a non -politicized festival, which has the sole vocation The party and sharing around an eclectic, intergenerational and quality musical program “. But, on Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon, flipping. In a statement, she announced “to take into account all of these reactions”. “We are therefore forced to give up this establishment and we are now looking for a place for the festival to be held in the Pyrénées-Orientales on the designed dates,” said the organizers.
The announcement of the move to Perpignan had surprised everyone on Friday. Starting with the Occitanie region, partner of the festival, and its socialist vice-president, Agnès Langevine. “It is a hostage taking of funders and groups, estimated the elected official. No one was aware, we even participated in a meeting of partners last week without any allusion to this move being done. “The region led by Carole Delga, which made its fight against the ideas of the RN its workhorse and whose relations with Mr. Aliot are execrable, announced, on Monday, January 9, to review his subsidies downward. With a height of 250,000 euros, however, they only represented a drop of water from the overall budget of the festival, of 10 million euros.
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