For music journalists and the public alike, Rock en Seine is the unmissable event for the start of the school year. The opportunity to meet in a friendly and musical atmosphere, in front of some of the legends and revelations of pop culture. So, we have to admit it: discovering the Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) estate this Thursday evening, we have a little pang in our hearts. We lose our bearings. Where are the five stages, the multiple bars and stands, the crowd?
The armed police are still there but the instructions have changed: wearing a mask is compulsory, hydroalcoholic gel is omnipresent, bars and stands are rare, tables very spaced, artists' boxes out of access, seats. And only 1,500 spectators are announced on the great plain, where up to 40,000 people congregate on great evenings. Obviously, it's not the same atmosphere.
Tonight, it's not Rock en Seine, even if it is his team who organize the evening with France 2 and France Inter, who broadcast it live. Tonight is the Festival des Festivals, a solidarity event bringing together around thirty artists who would not necessarily have played Rock en Seine this year but who should have made the summer festival tour.
It is not in a festival that one enters but in an outdoor television show. “The hardest part, admit Élise and Nicolas, who came with their daughter Élise, is not to be masked, it is to be seated. This is not the spirit of a festival. But despite everything we are happy to be there. All three are masked. “We have no fear of being there. The proof, we came with our daughter. "
"We take what there is to take"
This family from Montrouge, faithful to Rock en Seine, has attended only one concert since last March, that of Benjamin Biolay on Radio France: “It was only half an hour, but it was already it. And tonight, it's also a consolation. We take what there is to take. »Do they have a preference between Calogero, Alain Souchon - the darling of Roselyne Bachelot -, Camélia Jordana, Yael Naïm, Hatik? “Not tonight,” they reply. It is a pleasure to find all the artists. "
When Catherine Ringer, Jeanne Added and Oxmo Puccino launch at 9 p.m. this concert-show on a cover of “Soul Makossa”, in tribute to Manu Dibango struck down by the coronavirus, the public stands up. " That's great ! »Cries little Nina. With her mother Anne and her grandma Odile, the little girl never misses an edition of Rock en Seine. “Obviously, we are more rock and electro, but tonight's programming suits us very well, admits his mother. It's the first time we've been to a concert in six months. So we are very happy to be there anyway. "
"France without culture is no longer France"
These followers of Rock en Seine, who come as neighbors of Sèvres, also thought that there would be nothing at the end of August at the Saint-Cloud park. “When we received, as regulars of the festival, an email from the organization offering to take invitations for this evening, we were pleasantly surprised, admits Anne. We immediately answered yes. We are there for fun and to support artists. We have musician friends for whom it's hard not to have a job. I hope that Madame Bachelot, who is here this evening, will have a good aid policy for them. France without culture is no longer France. "
The Minister of Culture came "to greet the organizers of this evening who managed to find an answer in this period" but also to meet behind the scenes of the festival several directors and directors of festivals and producers of shows. “This sector is devastated, devastated, recalls Roselyne Bachelot. It is a sector that needs to regain confidence. For half an hour, the minister listens to the concerns of professionals but also their ideas and their solidarity.
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Private producers and festivals learned during the day that they would receive 210 million state aid. The rules of distancing in concerts have also been lightened, with the exception of towns located in the red zones. They are reassured about their future, but ask that the distribution of aid be fair and recall that they need visibility to organize tours.
"How to set up a tour if a prefect says at the last moment no in a red zone? »Summarizes one of them. "You and me lack visibility," admits the minister. But we have to bring people back to our festivals and venues. We must not be afraid. "