The Alpilles Festival is dead and buried.
Bucolic setting of the hilarious shows given last year by comedians Inès Reg, Édouard Baer and Maxime Gasteuil, Eyguières (Bouches-du-Rhône), a town between Arles and Aix-en-Provence, will not bend this year in front of new alone on stage, and neither does its town hall.
The 2022 edition of the event has been canceled, the organizers regretfully announced.
According to Gérard Darmon, sponsor and artistic director of the festival, the fault would be nothing more or less than a whim of the mayor.
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The municipality
"left things to rot slowly, without answering our questions over the weeks or responding to the choice of artists
", lamented the actor on Monday in the newspaper
La Provence
, accusing
the mayor of
"lies"
. Eyguières, Henri Pons (Horizons), whom he suspects of having personally invested in the sidelining of the festival.
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Flambeau
“If Mr. Pons wants to put his family in charge of the festival, his grandmother, let him do it”,
launched the actor, not without exhausting in passing
“the goodwill of the prince”
, as well as
“bad faith , shenanigans and low blows”
surrounding the cancellation of the event.
Even more than the decision not to renew the event, Gérard Darmon regrets the absence of any communication on this subject with the teams of the town hall.
“I hit a wall
,” he explained.
We had no argument to oppose me to stop this festival.
The mayor was unreachable and, you realize, my teams had to travel to Eyguières to try to discuss with him.
In vain."
The cost of the show
Finally dismissing with a wave of the hand the
"rumors"
and the
"slander"
against him, in particular about the financial organization of the festival and the amount of the receipts, the actor specified to our colleagues to be ready to defend the Festival des Alpilles
and
its integrity
“before the courts”
if necessary.
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Joined by
Le Figaro
, Henri Pons insisted that Gérard Darmon
“is completely wrong in his analysis”
.
“We are in a public market with mandatory competition rules to be respected.
His position goes against all the fundamental principles of public procurement law
,” reacted the mayor of Eyguières.
Also interviewed by
La Provence
, Henri Pons clarified that he had to cancel the 2022 edition of the festival – a
“very beautiful adventure which was on a positive dynamic”
, in his words – due to a
“strict budgetary framework”
.
Among the new expenses that led to this decision
"taken without any joy of heart"
, the mayor notably advances the increase in the fine for lack of social housing or even the reduction of more than half of the DGF.
Despite his now public conflict with the town hall, Gérard Darmon nevertheless wanted to thank for their
"kindness"
the Eyguiérens and Eyguiérennes who helped to set up this event the previous three years, rehabilitating the green theater of the town left then abandoned.
The first editions of the festival had allowed artists of national stature, such as the rapper Nekfeu or the flamenco formation Gipsy Kings, to perform in concert in the Alpilles.
“
All this is reduced to ashes by the will of a man and his entourage who preferred to opt for the particular interest rather than for the general interest,
summarized Gérard Darmon.
It's just shameful."
In the Alpilles, we have visibly lost our sense of humor...
