Some events will be cancelled, others merely postponed, while a few will still (maybe) take place. The coronavirus epidemic and containment are forcing events’ organizers in Normandy to make hasty decisions. Let’s take a deeper look at the situation with Boris Lefebvre.
The cancelled events
Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus epidemic, some popular festivals will be cancelled in Normandy, namely Normandiebulle, Rush and Jazz sous les pommiers. This latter festival, which was programed to take place on May 15th for its 39th edition is simply cancelled. The organizers will be refunding the tickets, unless the public wishes to support the event and help with the financial loss. However, the organization shared some good news to sheer up the festival’s fans. It was announced that the 40th edition of Jazz sous les pommiers will take place from May 7th to May 15th 2021, and it will be opened by Ibrahim Maalouf.
The same goes (unfortunately) for Rush festival which was due to take place on the last weekend in May on Presqu’île Rollet (Rollet peninsula). The organizers announced that they couldn’t welcome thousands of people that usually attend the festival in the context of coronavirus, nor the international artists. Unfortunately, music events are not the only ones concerned with cancellations. The 25th edition of the famous comics’ festival, Normandiebulle, which was due to take place in Darnétal in Seine-Maritime department, will too be cancelled.
Pending and uncertain events
Some festivals in Normandy have made the choice to postpone instead of simply cancelling the event. It is the case of Papillon de Nuit which was due to take place in Saint-Laurent de Cuves in May and was postponed to August. For the organizers, it is essential to maintain the festival as this year’s edition is the 20th of the event and huge celebrations were thus programed. It is therefore at the end of the summer, the penultimate weekend of August (the 21st, 22nd and 23rd) that the 20th edition of Papillons de nuit is now scheduled.
Normandie Impressionniste Festival is also suspended. The festival, which was due to start on the first weekend of April and last until September 6th, was expected to bring together over 200 organisations to think about the future of the region. Normandie Impressionniste is postponed to an undisclosed date. In the meantime, you can find parts of its program on the festival’s website and social networks accounts.
How about Festival Beauregard? Will it still take place from July 2nd to 5th, 2020 in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, near Caen? It’s hard to say for festival director Paul Langeois, who is currently teleworking with his team. “If we get the green light, I’ll make sure that we can mobilize all our teams, all our partners, all our intermittent workers to be able to set up the event as soon as possible and make sure that Beauregard takes place”, said the festival director.
