Concerts and events for more than 5,000 people: the Ministry of Culture retropedal

This is not going to calm the spirits, already scalded, in the world of entertainment and concerts. Tuesday evening, without warning, the Ministry of Culture issued a press release specifying how the ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 people in the cultural sector was going to be lifted and what rules were going to be relaxed. All from August 15, ten days later. The timing was already strange, when the health authorities and the government multiply the warnings against an acceleration of contaminations. But the sector, and in particular the producers of major concerts or shows, was impatiently waiting to know what sauce it was going to be eaten in September.

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Patatras. Less than forty-eight hours later, the rue de Valois splits a new rather pitiful press baptized "corrective". The previous version went, it seems, a bit fast in music. The ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 spectators is lifted from August 15, but the date of September 1, from which producers could do without the green light from the prefects, has been removed. Each concert, each gathering will therefore remain subject to an examination by the authorities and an administrative authorization "on an exceptional basis". A precision far from negligible. In view of the increase in cases of patients with the virus these days, the rue de Valois no longer seems to want to commit to a specific date. " We do not know where the epidemic will be at the beginning of September ", concedes a spokesperson for the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot.

Read also: Pierre-Alexandre Vertadier: "There will be almost no concert at the start of the school year"

Another “corrective”: there is no longer any question of a “point” organized on August 24 to measure the evolution of the epidemic and adjust the measures surrounding the demonstrations. The appointment has been postponed to an unknown date, which is unlikely to please the artists, producers and owners of concert halls grouped together within the professional organization Prodiss. Those who were to be the first to return to the stage in September, such as Alain Souchon, Christophe Maé, Lara Fabian, Matt Pokora and Ninho were impatiently awaiting this date to find out whether or not they had a chance to give their concerts. They will still have to wait and the public with them.