Hellfest was to celebrate its 15th anniversary from June 19 to 21 in Clisson (Loire-Atlantique). Like every year, the metal and rock festival was sold out with 180,000 spectators over three days, making it the 3rd largest musical gathering in France after the Interceltique de Lorient and the Vieilles Charrues and the largest budget (24 million euros). But the coronavirus has come to spoil the party. The founder and director of the festival, Ben Barbaud, announces that there will be no Hellfest in 2020 and that it will be postponed from June 18 to 20, 2021. He explains why.
You have been considering canceling your festival for several days. Where are you ?
BEN BARBAUD. I am forced to cancel the Hellfest. I just learned this Wednesday afternoon from the state authorities that an order prohibits our demonstration. They are neither able to support the setting up of the event nor to guarantee the safety and rescue measures during. This decree allows me to cancel the contracts with the artists and the providers for force majeure, and therefore not to increase our losses.
You were preparing for it ...
This cancellation will be a heavy blow for our 22 permanent employees, our 5,000 volunteers and our territory, but it is a matter of common sense. We were to start assembling the site on April 15. How can we imagine that the construction site would start when we might still be in confinement? And how can we imagine that in June, we would gather 60,000 people a day on a small perimeter without putting them at risk?
Why didn't you cancel earlier?
I was waiting to have a legal and administrative framework to be able to denounce contracts already made and declare the claim to insurance. Obviously I understand that the government emergencies are elsewhere, that the fate of our festival is very anecdotal compared to the world health crisis, but our situation became untenable. I already have more than two million euros in dry losses. And no help from my insurance…
That is to say ?
I am one of the few festivals insured against a pandemic. We took on December 17, before the virus appeared in China, a contract of € 175,000 to protect us and cover this height a possible cancellation due to a pandemic. However, we recently received a dismissal on the pretext that this “type” of pandemic was not included in our insurance policy. We obviously dispute this reading and will go to court.
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You also called Friday in "Ouest-France" the Ministry of Culture.
We had to stop the bleeding. But it must be recognized that since then, the department has taken up the problem head on. He has set up a unit to help festivals on a case-by-case basis and we are the first to benefit from it. Our case will probably snowball. Because quite a few other big festivals already know that they will not be able to be held and were waiting like me for an answer from the authorities.
Do you fear a summer without a festival?
I am not a soothsayer. A month ago I still thought that we would manage to maintain the event. But today, I find it hard to imagine that big festivals could take place. With cancellations starting to fall in Europe, foreign artists - assuming they are no longer confined, which is far from certain - will have so many holes in their tour that they will cancel them. But for small festivals, which have shorter edits and small capacities, it is obviously different. If the health situation improves, some may get there.
Does this cancellation put Hellfest in danger?
Honestly, no. We have a solid financial base, loyal partners, festival-goers and patrons and understanding artists. We are privileged to be sold out every year. We also hope that festival-goers will keep their tickets for next year, to allow us to keep cash in this white year. I also point out to them that we have opened an online kitty to help the caregivers of the Nantes University Hospital who lack equipment. We put € 20,000 and we hope that the metalheads will follow. It will remind everyone how united this sometimes misunderstood community is.