We already know: the 32nd edition of Fest’arts de Libourne will not be the one with the highest attendance. The fault is weather that is as uncertain as it is capricious. “In the street arts, time and its vagaries are part of the game, the artists are used to it and so are we”, often repeats Tiphaine Giry, the director of the festival. With her team and her volunteers, she had to manage six cancellations on Thursday August 3, the first day of the event…
We already know: the 32nd edition of Fest’arts de Libourne will not be the one with the highest attendance. The fault is weather that is as uncertain as it is capricious. “In the street arts, time and its vagaries are part of the game, the artists are used to it and so are we”, often repeats Tiphaine Giry, the director of the festival. With her team and her volunteers, she had to manage six cancellations on Thursday August 3, the first day of the event.
And let’s face it, the crowd was not as dense as in previous editions. On the other hand, Friday had ideal weather, neither too hot nor too cold and above all dry! As for Saturday’s, it too was disturbed a little by the rain, without any real impact on the programming and the motivation of the festival-goers to come.
“At Human scale”
Umbrella under his arm and K-way on his shoulders, Michel Laforge comes from Bordeaux with his wife, determined to see the three shows he has spotted. “We thought there would be fewer people because of the weather, but in the end, you always have to arrive in advance to see the shows well,” says this regular at Fest’arts. In fact, for a few years, it is better to anticipate to find a good place. A sign that despite everything, the public is there for this 32nd edition.
Thursday, if the crowd was less dense than usual, the public was nevertheless at the rendezvous.
LD
Anaïs Faure, she lives her first festival in Libourne of which she appreciates “the human size”. “I’ve done others and it’s sometimes difficult to go from one place to another. There, everything is quite close and it’s very practical when you come with children. Geneviève Porte, for her part, especially applauds the initiative to have banned cars from the city center. “It’s much nicer not to have the noise of the engines when you attend a performance, especially around the market square,” she says.
“The weather spoils the party a bit but it was better to lose Thursday than Saturday”
On the programming side, it is difficult to have an exhaustive look, but the shows are already arousing a certain enthusiasm. This is the case of “The Iliad”, of the Cie Bravache, a funny version of the Trojan War or even of “Boom! by innate Ussé who, in a few minutes, transforms the public space into a dancefloor.
Festive atmosphere with the Cie Ussé inné which, in a few minutes, gets the audience up for a collective and shared dance momentum. A spectacle as delightful as it is exciting.
Claude Petit / “South West”
Friday was well attended both during the day and in the evening for the Toto and the Savages concert at the Centrale.
T. G.
Mixed results on the retail side
The gourmet space installed in the Madison car park is a good barometer for estimating the crowds. “Thursday, despite the rain, we still had a few people, people even ate in the rain, but it was mainly Friday that we worked well, with 200 covers during the day”, are satisfied Caro and Véro, from the Popottes food-truck. Same observation on the side of La Cuisine de Manu. “Friday evening alone, we had 250 seats. We had no more stock, we had to refuse customers. »
If the day of Thursday was rather calm in the catering area, that of Friday exploded all the figures.
Claude Petit / “South West”
As for the authentic Zinc bar-restaurant, which has a drinks stand, the results are more mixed. “The weather spoils the party a bit, but it was better to lose on Thursday than on Saturday. And then people took refuge in the restaurant where there, we worked really well ”, relativizes Benjamin Rolland, the boss. It remains to be seen whether Saturday evening, usually the most important, will live up to expectations.
