“Without an artist, no festival!
It is with this formula that the direction of the Les Déferlantes music festival announced on Tuesday that its 2023 edition would not ultimately be held in Perpignan.
“We are now looking for a new place so that the festival can be held in the Pyrénées-Orientales on the dates planned”, specifies the press release.
Last week, the Louise Attaque group, like Indochine a few days earlier, announced that it was refusing to perform in Perpignan, a city held by the National Rally (RN), where the Les Déferlantes festival is moving this year.
"We take into consideration all of these reactions", details the direction of the festival.
Born in 2007 in Argelès-sur-Mer, a seaside resort near Perpignan, the festival moved in 2022 to the Pyrenean city of Céret, before announcing in early January that it would hold its 2023 edition in Perpignan.
“We had planned to play at the Les Déferlantes festival on July 9th.
(…) It was moved to the municipality of Perpignan by the organizers, without our having been consulted.
The RN mayor of the city of Perpignan immediately welcomed it, ”wrote the group in a press release on social networks.
Gaëtan Roussel wants to avoid a "recovery of the festival by the town hall (RN)"
“Not wishing to endorse either the fait accompli method or the possible recovery of the festival by the town hall, we also ask the management of Les Déferlantes to do everything possible to find another place.
(…) In the current state of things and in this precise context, we do not wish to participate in this event”, warns the group of Gaëtan Roussel.
Read alsoCalls for a boycott, disappointed spectators… Big hiccups after the announcement of the Déferlantes move to Perpignan
In 2022, Les Déferlantes welcomed “more than 100,000 festival-goers over 4 days”, but the public particularly deplored travel difficulties, according to the festival.
On Monday, the festival organizers took "note of the group's position to condition, for political questions, their coming to Les Déferlantes".
The city of Perpignan has been led since 2020 by Mayor RN Louis Aliot.
RN President Jordan Bardella on Monday denounced "sectarian and disrespectful" behavior.
Also regretting having been presented with the fait accompli of the move, on Friday, the Occitanie region “plans to lower its contribution to the festival, via Sud de France, its brand of promotion of regional products from Occitanie”.