The Solidays festival, which finances Solidarity Sida action plans, scheduled for June 18 to 20, is canceled, like last year, due to the health crisis, founder Luc Barruet told AFP on Thursday.
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It is the first big French festival to give up this year, after an almost blank season last summer for current music.
In 2019, over three days, Solidays had gathered 228,000 spectators at the Longchamp racecourse (west of Paris).
"It's a difficult decision, but it's our responsibility to take it
," explains the boss of Solidays, also founding director of the Solidarité Sida association.
The hopes that we can play this summer, with a big gauge and standing, are hypothetical and weak ”
.
“The variants linked to Covid-19 have gained ground and projections show that the vaccination will take longer than expected. And a small-scale formula was not viable, because this festival is primarily used to raise funds for our international aid programs in the fight against HIV, ”
adds the official.
The cancellation of this festival represents a shortfall of 3.5 million euros (same amount as last year) for the 114 projects to support AIDS patients in 21 countries,
“de Montreuil, in the Philippines, in passing through Ukraine ”
, underlines Luc Barruet.
Last year, these losses were offset by the maintenance of aid from public institutions - ministries, Ile-de-France region, city of Paris - and support from private partners.
Not to mention the festival-goers who had donated, partially or in full, for the purchase of their ticket.
For this year, Luc Barruet calls again for the generosity and solidarity of public institutions and private partners.
But Solidays did not have time this time to put his tickets on sale.
Headliners like Damso, Black Eyed Peas, Justice or Suzane had recently been announced.
Luc Barruet is therefore working on
"a TV project to celebrate youth and music, accompanied by a major mobilization campaign, on the initial dates of Solidays, in favor of the fight against HIV"
.
"At Solidarité Sida, it is not possible to say '' we tried, but we did not succeed ''", insists Luc Barruet.
