Three months before the Olympic Games, festivals and concert halls fear paying the price

The Printemps de Bourges opens with music a festival season in France marked this year by the concomitance of the Olympic Games, a global event voracious in mobilized law enforcement. In October 2022, the curtain was not sure of rising in good weather in 2024. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had cast a chill by mentioning cultural events “canceled or postponed” for the summer of 2024. The reason ? Ensure the security of the Olympic Games, but also that of the passage of the Olympic flame (from May 8) and the Paralympic Games (from August 28 to September 8).

From the end of 2022, a framework has been defined and major musical festivals, such as Vieilles Charrues (July 11-14) or Rock en Seine (August 21-25), have been protected. As well as blockbusters for other disciplines, such as Cannes for cinema (May 14-25) or Avignon for theater (June 29-July 21). In current music, among the big events, only the Lollapalooza Paris, in collision with the opening ceremony, will not take place this summer.

Other parameters are at play. Thus, the large concert venues - Stade de France, Paris La Défense Arena and even Bercy - are requisitioned for the Olympics. International artists like Coldplay or Justin Timberlake skipped the Paris region, without rescheduling later.

Ekhoscenes (merger of Prodiss, the National Union of Private Theaters and the Union of Cabarets and Music Halls), which represents private performing arts entrepreneurs, thus estimates the loss of ticketing revenue for the producers of private performing arts at 150 million euros. shows.

Concerning the festivals, the context is already one of “rising costs”, the organizers face the “extremely powerful competition from the Olympic Games” which creates “tensions” in terms of “equipment, service providers, workforce”, describes Malika Séguineau, general director of Ekhoscenes. Without forgetting, according to this manager, the traditional “brand partnerships” preferring to focus on the Olympic Games this summer. Ekhoscenes does not yet have “quantified feedback” on this point and is awaiting its “assessment in the fall, hoping that there is not too much damage,” specifies Malika Séguineau.

The opening ceremony of the Games, with the Seine as a backdrop, also raises questions for certain places, such as Petit Bain, a Parisian concert hall on a barge. “We are between despair and vehemence, still not fixed on the exact conditions of access, less than a hundred days from the ceremony, while we were waiting for details for the summer of 2023,” laments its boss, Laurent Decès.

This operator is faced with a double uncertainty. “First, the programming. On July 16, 17, 18, I have options for concerts or clubbing on stand-by, without knowing if this will be able to take place,” explains Laurent Decès, who is also director of the Syndicat des musiques contemporains (SMA). “And for our quayside terrace, up to 300 people possible, we have to recruit staff and seasonal workers need stable plans. And, there, we don't know if we will be able to work from July 18 to 26. This staff will go to other establishments,” he continues.

Furthermore, Ekhoscenes and the SMA remain vigilant for festivals that are “less visible in communications than blockbusters, those with more modest ratings”, as Malika Séguineau says. These meetings “are difficult to achieve a firm position from the prefecture concerned” regarding their holding, explains the manager, “which is unprecedented”. “Officially, these festivals are being held but some feel like a sword of Damocles because they are told: You have the authorizations unless security conditions force us to review them,” says Stéphane Krasniewski, in charge of festivals at the SMA.