After two editions canceled due to Covid, this 32nd edition was to sign the great return of the "Eurocks", crowned in March 2020 "best festival" in the world at the Arthur Awards.
But even before the first concert, Thursday June 30, a violent storm fell on the Malsaucy lake, where the Belfortain festival is held.
Campsite tents flew away, trees were uprooted and a metal tower carrying electrical equipment fell on festival-goers.
Bad weather left seven injured, including one seriously, and led to the cancellation of the first two evenings of concerts.
Read alsoEurockéennes: seven injured “in relative emergency” after violent gusts
Sunday evening, at the time of the balance sheet, the organizers of the Eurockéennes affirmed to look towards the future with
“many reasons to hope”
.
“It was a very special edition,”
said the president of the festival, Matthieu Pigasse, during a press conference on the Eurockéennes site.
During the last two days, the party was beautiful, despite many unforeseen events: the cancellation of Foals on Saturday, the return of covid-19 or even plane problems which caused Paula Temple to arrive five minutes before her concert.
"This meteorological episode of rare violence, unforeseen and unpredictable, led us to cancel the evenings of Thursday and Friday, that is to say about two thirds of the 54 concerts planned for the whole festival",
a recalled Matthieu Pigasse.
Stromae, the duo Bob Sinclar and Pedro Winter, Nick Cave or even Clara Luciani could not perform.
The festivities resumed on Saturday July 2 with
“incredible energy, both at the level of the public and the artists”,
noted the programmer Kem Lalot.
“
Izïa
gave everything, the Last Trains gave a fantastic concert, Meute replaced
Foals
on the big stage at short notice, and tonight we end in apotheosis with Muse”
.
Saturday and Sunday evenings were sold out with 60,000 festival-goers in total.
Read alsoFor their big comeback, the Eurockéennes 2022 offer themselves Muse and Stromae
“We look to the future”
“We have many reasons to hope and be confident in the future: the first is the festival-goers, who came in large numbers after the cancellation, and the second is the strength of the Eurocks collective, the sense of responsibilities and the cold blood shown by the team”,
according to Matthieu Pigasse.
"If we opened on Saturday, it's thanks to them, to the volunteers, as well as to all those who offered their help, including local residents and neighbours,"
he admits.
"Less than 200 entries to the aid station, it's derisory when more than 30,000 people are on site",
welcomes the prefect Raphaël Sodini.
After three difficult years, the director of the festival, Jean-Paul Roland, intends to look to the future.
For next year, the Eurockéennes will try to set up
“pooling mechanisms”
between several festivals, “
to pool technical teams”,
while the workforce is becoming scarce.
In addition, the organizers intend to renew in September the Secondary residences, a mini-festival which welcomed 5,000 spectators, tested in 2021.