Vaccines, health pass, open air, exemptions ... Ten ideas to keep the festivals going this summer

To avoid a second blank year, festival directors are teeming with ideas.

In exceptional circumstances, exceptional measures.

Le Figaro takes stock of the ten most original innovations.

Read also: Canceled, maintained or postponed: the festival calendar in the time of Covid-19

The bonus for solo stars

This summer, no big show is expected in France. All touring blockbusters, such as those of Lionel Ritchie or Celine Dion, are postponed to 2022. But artists, especially those of jazz, blues, soul or classical, offer to travel with small teams. Sometimes only with their sound engineer and their manager. This allows for simpler sanitary controls and lean logistics. Their idea? To play alone on stage with an instrument, as before. “

It's a return to fundamentals, favoring the purity of musical play and relying on intimacy with the public,

welcomes Mathieu Jaton, director of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Paradoxically, we will be able to present great international artists that we are no longer used to seeing solo in small gauges.

We are preparing a whole series of special projects that would probably never have seen the light of day without the crisis.

For the public, this luxury will remain affordable: the most expensive tickets will cost 120 Swiss francs (or around 110 euros) against the usual 250.

Exemptions for foreign artists

At a time when movement between countries is increasingly subject to controls and quarantines, the question of the arrival of foreign artists is posed to the organizers.

"

We are expecting several international artists, including Nobuyuki Tusjii who comes from Japan, Kyle Eastwood from California and Rafal Blechacz who comes from Poland,"

explains Thomas Valverde artistic director of the Biarritz piano festival.

This is made possible thanks to exemptions decided on a case-by-case basis between the Quai d'Orsay and the Ministry of Culture.

This provision also benefits film shoots, which explains the presence of several American teams currently in France.

Remove the free part of festivals

If the festivals are maintained, the question of the circulation of the crowds remains to be settled. A fortiori when an event combines main stages with reservations and open events. Normally, Jazz à Vienne is organized between the ancient theater for paying concerts and the garden where the free part is held, ie three quarters of its programming. "

It is free for the public but costs us 600,000 euros over the fortnight because we have to pay for the installations, the technicians and the artists,"

explains Samuel Riblier, general manager of the festival.

For the moment, we are only scheduling paid concerts at the ancient theater.

For the rest, everything will depend on the government's announcements.

Simply, we must act quickly.

The fateful date to decide is in two weeks.

"

Double the most anticipated concerts

In France, a maximum audience level has been set at 5,000 people.

In Switzerland, authorizations are currently for 1,000 people.

Difficult in these conditions to satisfy fans of very popular artists and to make profitable evenings designed for 10,000 people or more.

At the Marciac Jazz Festival, director Jean-Louis Guilhaumon found a parade.

“

I would double the concerts the same evening.

One at 7:30 p.m. with only the main artist, a second at 9 p.m. with a first part.

His counterpart Samuel Riblier, managing director of Jazz à Vienne, will do the same for the concerts of Ibrahim Maalouf and Marcus Miller.

Vaccinate artists on site

Most Anglo-Saxon artists are now vaccinated and willingly agree to travel to perform this summer in Europe.

Remains the case except for young artists who are not yet protected against the virus.

"

I am negotiating with the authorities so that the 300 young musicians of the invited orchestras are vaccinated on site because they arrive three weeks before the start of the festival

", explains Martin Engström, director of the Verbier classical music festival in Switzerland.

“

They will then have their second dose in the fourth week.

"

Build an ephemeral scene on a lake

Montreux Jazz Festival festival-goers are going to have a nice surprise this summer.

For the first time in twenty years, the festival has been authorized to build an ephemeral stage for an audience of 600 spectators on Lake Geneva.

"

The lake is governed by complicated laws but in an exceptional situation, exceptional authorization

", explains its director Mathieu Jaton.

Read also: The Montreux Jazz Festival has a stage on Lake Geneva so as not to sink in front of the Covid

Halve the duration of concerts

Since the gauges will remain limited with at best one in two armchairs and it is necessary to avoid crowded places such as bars, the Biarritz piano festival is resuming its formula which was successfully tested last summer.

"

We are removing the two-hour concert formula with intermission for a simple 60-minute performance,

" explains its artistic director Thomas Valverde.

A solution which makes it possible to limit the entries, the exits, the number of spectators who gather and thus to ensure a better sanitary control.

Read also: Biarritz Piano Festival was held despite the crisis

Stream live concerts

For financial as well as health reasons, this idea is attracting more and more people.

In particular, sponsors potentially reach millions of listeners instead of tens of thousands of festival-goers.

In this arrangement, the on-site ticket office is less central.

“

We could achieve financial equilibrium even if the authorities modify the authorized tonnage at the last moment

,” explains Mathieu Jaton of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Read also: Faced with the Covid, the Montreux Jazz Festival is digitizing its next editions

Encourage the health pass and tests

With their certificate on a sheet of paper or on the StopCovid application, vaccinated people will be able to show their QR code at the entrance, those whose PCR test is negative or who have a certificate of immunity too.

The French government, however, has not decided the question even if abroad, equivalent measures are multiplying.

The system could be supplemented by test areas for spectators who came without a health passport.

Read also: Health pass: the TousAntiCovid application will certify tests and vaccination

Encourage a territorial reopening

On this issue, the cultural community is divided. Some festival directors are in favor, like Jean-Louis Guilhaumon from Jazz in Marciac. “

The Gers is the department least affected by the Covid. Being away from the main roads is sometimes good,

”he explains. But the measure is far from unanimous in the cultural sector, especially among directors of cinemas and film distributors who are against a reopening region by region that would not allow national release of films.