The barges and moorings will be there.
Barges, toues, sapines, fûtreaux and flat de Loire, not to mention a few stars, boats, bachots and other yolettes,… The Loire Festival presents an appetite of Leviathan, this year, while the tenth edition of the nautical event is getting ready to drop anchor in Orléans, from Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 September.
A total of 220 boats are expected on the city's Loire docks for an event that has become in a few years the largest gathering of river navies in Europe.
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A sign of this enthusiasm, no less than 700 sailors will participate in this anniversary edition of the festival.
If they do not all come from the seven seas, several European sailors from Italy, Poland, the Netherlands or even Portugal have sailed to the capital of Loiret: all the river navies put to the honor in previous editions sent their representatives.
The public will be able to admire ships from the Thames, the Ebro, the Douro, the Tagus or even the Vistula and the Venetian lagoon.
They will complete the ranks of sailors mostly made up of French boatmen, among whom are both seasoned nochers and younger enthusiasts.
In bet spoiled by the rain, the last edition of the Loire Festival attracted between 150,000 and 180,000 people in 2019. Loire Festival / J.
Grelet
Musical tablecloths over the water
Nearly 500 artists will animate the docks for five days, as part of an abundant program that should not allow the public to take it easy. Inaugurated with an opening concert given by the Orchester symphonique d'Orléans, the musical schedule will align over the next week a whole flotilla of artists and folk groups, from the Bretons of La Banda Tchok to the Orléanais Les Copains D ' port. Giving pride of place to sailor songs, the pontoon stages will give way in the evening to the jazz sounds of the Hawaiian Pistoleros or the brassy soul of the Malted Milk. On the entertainment side, a
"pyro-symphonic show"
will pay tribute, Saturday evening, to the sailors of the Loire, while the festival will lower the sails, Sunday, with its traditional flagged parade, along the Loire.
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Biodiversity and the environment will also be highlighted this year during the great Orleans event. On the program, scientific conferences and the screening of several films, including the preview of
Animal
by Cyril Dion, co-director with Mélanie Laurent de
Demain
.
“I hope that the festival will be the occasion to pass a certain number of messages, in particular on the massacre of biodiversity. Many people are unaware of the disaster
”, declared the mayor of Orleans Serge Grouard (LR). The public will also have the opportunity to travel back in time during several conferences devoted to the archeology and history of the Loire, from the Viking raids to the sailors of the Revolution.
Previous editions of the Loire Festival had attracted up to 700,000 people, according to figures from the city of Orleans. The latter expects less this year, due to the obligation for the organizers to reserve access to the site, concerts and festival events only to holders of the health pass. Moreover, the quays and the Orleans canal will only be able to accommodate 50,000 spectators simultaneously. “
There are people who are always worried, but there is also enthusiasm
, estimated Serge Grouard.
The festival comes from the desire to reorient Orléans towards the Loire. There was a craze. We reconnected with the river
”. The fluvial festival still has plenty of good times ahead.
