Le Figaro Bordeaux
In the eco-friendly city of Bordeaux, no more giant tanks transporting 2.5 tons of papier-mâché magic through the streets.
Considered
“too polluting”,
they were excluded from the Carnaval des 2 Rives parade, which will be held this Sunday on the theme of Africa.
To respond to the call for projects allowing them to be included and benefit from the 13,000 euros in subsidies distributed by the municipality among the winners, the candidate associations had to commit to towing their tanks with ecological energy.
A decision announced last July and recorded at the start of the school year, which immediately excluded the Federation of Carnival Societies of the Bordeaux suburbs, which had received this budget to host the party since the creation of the event.
Besides, she didn't apply.
“Electric vehicles to pull 2.5-ton tanks do not exist. The truth is that the town hall wants to piss off the carnival society. Thermal vehicles pass through Bordeaux every day, and couldn’t we do it that day?”
, tance Josette Lalande, the president of this federation.
Feeling betrayed, the octogenarian who has been parading since 1972 with her floats, the fruit of
“family work”
to
“please people”
, does not lose her temper.
Facing her, Camille Choplin, the deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of associations, accepts this choice by advancing the duty of exemplarity incumbent on the City.
“We are in a major ecological crisis and emergency, we must all do our part.
How could an environmentalist town hall still allow tractors to blow their smoke in children’s faces?”
she retorts.
Do you know how green people do it?
They will change everything, break tradition and do worse.
This is their way of doing things!
We are betrayed!
Josette Lalande, president of the Federation of carnival societies of the Bordeaux suburbs
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Three DJs in a bathtub
“The carnival society does not plan to do otherwise because it believes that the large format float is traditional,”
continues the elected official.
But last year, the children who were part of the jury gave them zero on the ecological criterion because they were towed by “a smelly truck” (sic).”
The five winning associations which will parade on March 3 will therefore present sand yachts or those pulled on foot or by bicycle.
Among them, the Slowfest collective, created in 2015, which calls for low-carbon artistic mobility.
In a
“stage cycle”
towed by a rosalie and adorned with solar panels powering a wall of sound, three DJs will mix in a bathtub.
They will be surrounded by performers, who will improvise dances like the creations of La sud, the unbridled collective which brings together queer initiatives to which one of the dancers belongs.
A performance accompanied by the “trash orchestra”, which makes musical instruments and percussion from recycled materials.
“Given the ambitions of the town hall, it is logical and appropriate that this carnival be carbon-free.
We like to make people dream and party without polluting, it’s possible
,” explains Virginie Seguinaud, the coordinator of the association who received 6,000 euros to carry out this proposal, or almost half of the budget allocated to the new participating floats. at the party.
End of a tradition
A new image of the Bordeaux carnival which hurts Josette Lalande.
“The Bordeaux town hall wants to transform the carnival?
Do you know how green people do it?
They will change everything, break tradition and do worse.
This is their way of doing things!
We are betrayed
,” thunders the octogenarian, furious that
“the popular festival”
is being subverted in the name
of “8-year-old children who know nothing about the art of carnival
. ”
Proud of her art, the president of the carnival federation also emphasizes that children from Bordeaux leisure centers have never come to visit her workshops when she welcomes those from the surrounding communities.
A point to which the Bordeaux town hall retorts that these children contributed to making the floats and costumes for the Carnaval des 2 Rives this year.
“Resistance to change is very strong everywhere. It may seem like a small step, but small steps, even symbolic ones, put Bordeaux on the right trajectory,”
firmly maintains Camille Choplin, who is not closing the door to the carnival federation for next year if it respects the new rules laid down. .
But the association which is well established in Gironde carnivals is already refusing to do so.
Invited to Saint Louis de Montferrand on March 9, to Hourtin on March 17, to Saint Médard en Jalles on March 22 and 23, as well as to Eysines and Libourne, she especially wants the Bordeaux public to know that she is not absent of her own free will.
For the rest,
“the faith of carnival”
anchored to his body, Josette Lalande fully intends to die while perpetuating the tradition.