Coexistence of musical festivals and the 2024 Olympics: between guarantees and questions

The summer season of current music festivals will cohabit with the 2024 Olympic Games in France, between major events for the most part sanctuarized, questions for others and potential tensions around human or material resources.

The events “so-called emblematic should be held on the usual dates and formats, because of the discussions which have been carried out locally”, explains to AFP Malika Seguineau, head of Prodiss (National Union of Musical and Variety Shows).

As a reminder, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had aroused the misunderstanding of the festivals / major concerts sector by evoking at the end of October 2022 the need for cultural events in the summer of 2024 to be “cancelled or postponed”. massive mobilization of law enforcement for the Olympics (July 26 to August 11), but also before or after.

In addition to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris (which also concern other cities), between the beginning of May 2024 and the beginning of September 2024 there is the passage of the Olympic flame in many cities, the opening of the Olympic village, the 80th anniversary of the Landing in Normandy, then the Paralympic Games.

Since a meeting at the Ministry of Culture in early November 2022 with all the players in the sector, a framework has been gradually defined for dialogue with local authorities.

Rock en Seine, a big festival in the Paris region on the last weekend of August, "is on the calendar, it has been discussed with the prefecture", told AFP Matthieu Ducos, director of the event.

Same insurance for the Vieilles Charrues, a major event in Brittany (west) traditionally around mid-July. But on the side of the big festivals, there remains the uncertainty Lollapalooza Paris, which is being held next weekend, and therefore in the middle of the red zone in the summer of 2024. “It will not be on these dates and we have not still not succeeded in finding a new site”, summarizes for AFP Angelo Gopee, boss of Live Nation France, structure behind this French version of the Californian festival. Before adding that he gives himself until “next Sunday to announce something”.

For other meetings, medium and small, there are also “concerns” as Stéphane Krasniewski, in charge of festivals at Sma (Syndicat des musiques contemporaines) told AFP.

The Olympic flame passes through cities at the same time as festivals, such as Les 3 Elephants and Levitation in the West. "Will they be allowed to hang out? Will the city be saturated at this time? Will there be an overstretch of technical means? "Asks the manager.

And to also quote these festivals “during the Paralympic Games, Hadra (center) and Woodstower (center-east)”. "They can't shift, because it's very tricky to move a schedule without competing with another festival."

Stéphane Krasniewski also points to “conflicts of use”: the Intemporal-les festival in Argenton (center) takes place in an area “where there will be an Olympic base and no hotel will be available at this time”.

If the Parisian festival Solidays, one of the greats of the country, has "no worries" about its holding at the end of June 2024, its boss Luc Barruet tells AFP that he fears competition from the Olympic Games, a global event which risks to magnetize “human resources (technicians, security guards, etc.) and material (stages, screens, etc.)”.

In addition, Malika Seguineau recalls that “for concerts, Arena and stadium type rooms will not be accessible for many months because they are occupied by the Paris Olympics. In the Paris region, we have the examples of the Stade de France, which will also close before the Olympics to carry out works, the Accor Arena (Bercy) or even Paris La Défense Arena”.

“In the Paris region, the loss of turnover is estimated at more than 160 million euros, she continues. We are asking for compensation, because it is a prejudice for the musical sector”. The manager thus highlights "less copyright and less tax, a loss of nearly 8 million, which will not be donated to the Cnm (National Center for Music)".