The Vielles Charrues festival, one of the largest musical gatherings in France, could leave Carhaix (Finistère), a small town in Center-Brittany which has hosted it since the 1990s. "If you can find 100 hectares in Brittany, you will study the possibility of going elsewhere, "said Jean-Luc Martin president of the association of Vieilles Charrues, confirming information from the regional daily Le Télégramme.
"Today, the festival is organized on 85 hectares but we sign an agreement each year with the town hall and each year, we are bitten by small pieces of land," he explained. “A day will come when we will no longer be able to organize the festival because we welcome 80,000 people every day on the site. We want to be sure that we will be able to make use of the land for the next 10 years, ”he added.
The festival would also like to have permanent facilities (toilets, lighting, electricity) to organize concerts outside the festival dates. "But it is difficult on terrains that are not ours," explained Jean-Luc Martin.
The town hall speaks of “blackmail”
Negotiations took place with the town hall of Carhaix, which proposed the creation of a mixed economy company (SEM) for the management of the Kerampuilh park, site of the festival, because "it is a place that is used to full associations ”, according to Mayor Christian Troadec.
A proposal that "in principle suits us," said Jean-Luc Martin. But the board of directors of Vielles Charrues "spoke out against the memorandum of understanding proposed by the town hall because it did not suit us. There was no record of the possibility of building on the land, "he said.
For Christian Troadec, "there is always a negotiation possible". "They have no reason to complain, we live this as an injustice," he added. And "generally, nobody appreciates blackmail as a negotiating weapon in the middle of an electoral campaign," warned the mayor, also a co-founder of the festival. "It will be better in April," after the municipal elections in March, he added.
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The 29th edition of the festival will take place from July 16 to 19, 2020. The last edition of this “100% associative” festival welcomed 270,000 spectators in four days.
