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Solidays, theater of solidarity for 24 years for its boss Luc Barruet

2022-06-24T04:06:30.043Z


PORTRAIT – Since its creation, this 55-year-old man has carried the festival at arm's length, which he considers to be an "emotional centrifuge". And intends to make people forget the two years of health crisis and do better in terms of attendance and revenue than in 2019, a record year for...


"When you're gay or seropo, you can open your mouth

," he was told at the time.

However, Luc Barruet has been the boss of Solidarité Sida for 30 years, the association which created the Solidays festival to mobilize against the disease.

"It was at the beginning, let's be clear

," he explained in an interview with AFP.

Today, relations have calmed down considerably, the environment is not the same, the activists are not the same”.

Read alsoEddy de Pretto, Rilès, Gaël Faye, Niska join the Solidays festival

A student of political and social sciences at the Sorbonne in 1992, the one who is nicknamed today "Mr. Solidays" was only 25 years old when he decided to act on his own scale against AIDS, a rapidly expanding health scourge. .

Not directly concerned, Luc Barruet is nevertheless driven by a desire to help others which has manifested itself from an early age, for example by defending his comrades who have been extorted at school.

By creating Solidarité Sida with a friend, Éric Elzière, they set themselves the goal of raising 1.5 million euros to help the sick.

“It was hard, you had to go see people, convince people, be taken seriously.

I put on my flannel and my blazer, to gain a little bit of credibility”

, he still remembers, with a smile on his face.

But Luc Barruet defines himself as

“a pragmatic utopian”, “someone who aims for the stars, ambitious and who considers that everything that is desirable is possible in terms of solidarity”

.

He knocked on the doors of personalities like Antoine de Caunes, whom he approached by posing as a delivery man at Canal +, where the host officiated at the time.

Perseverance ends up paying, because Antoine de Caunes has been Honorary President of Solidays for 25 years.

As for Luc, he rose one by one through the ranks of Solidarité Sida, from student volunteer, to employee and then director of the association which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

"Pilgrimage site"

Another significant encounter in the career of Luc Barruet: Alpha, a Senegalese imam, now deceased, whom he knew during a mission in Africa.

Alpha came

"once, twice"

to Solidays, when he was not used to leaving Senegal.

When he asks him if he likes the festival, Alpha replies:

“You know Solidays, it's a place of pilgrimage.

A place where you will share things with your community.

When you come out of it, you feel stronger and you believe more strongly in human value.

Words that still resonate with him.

“You cannot imagine the number of people and even young people for whom Solidays has become an initiatory meeting”

, a passage

“towards a daily life more open to others”

.

At 55,

"despite a few small slack"

, Luc Barruet is not yet ready to leave his place as

"director"

of the Parisian festival.

“Solidays is a bit like an affective centrifuge;

we found the ignition key and we manage for the moment to activate it every year, when we open the doors”.

So for this 24th edition, from Friday to Sunday, the founder of Solidays intends to make people forget the two years of health crisis and do better in terms of attendance and revenue than in 2019, a record year.

Black Eyed Peas, Damso, Eddy de Pretto, Matthieu Chedid, Ninho, OrelSan and Yseult are among the personalities who will be on stage this weekend at Solidays.

In addition,

"there should perhaps be between 20 and 30 personalities who will volunteer this year

," says Luc Barruet.

“Perhaps the festival-goers who are going to buy T-shirts, merchandising will come across Antoine de Caunes, Kad Merad or Roschdy Zem,”

he adds, looking mischievous.

See you on Friday at the Paris-Longchamp racecourse.

Source: lefigaro

All life articles on 2022-06-24

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