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FETE DE LA MUSIQUE

IN PICTURES: France marks annual street music party (including a rave at the Elysée)

French President Emmanuel Macron invited music fans to a socially distanced techno party at the presidential palace on Monday, reviving a pre-Covid event to mark the country's annual street music festival.

Published: 22 June 2021 08:41 CEST
IN PICTURES: France marks annual street music party (including a rave at the Elysée)
A music enthusiast holds a French flag along the "Promenade des Anglais", as part of the French midsummer Festival of Music, "Fete de la Musique", on June 21, 2021 on the French riviera city of Nice. - "Fete de la Musique", which celebrates music in all its forms annually on June 21, the longest day of the year with a giant street party, comes this year a day after the government scrapped an 11:00 pm curfew, one of the last steps in a phased lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

France celebrates music in all its forms with a giant street party on June 21.

In 2018, Macron began throwing open the cobbled courtyard of the Elysée Palace to dance fans on that day, with a gig featuring stars from France’s electro scene.

Audience members sit socially distanced in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace as they listen to electronic music performer Irene Dresel during France’s annual fête de la musique music festival in the courtyard of the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Ian LANGSDON / POOL / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) delivers an opening speech, as his wife Brigitte Macron (R) and French electronic music performer Jean-Michel Jarre (C). (Photo by Ian LANGSDON / POOL / AFP)

This year’s Fete de la Musique comes a day after the government scrapped an 11:00 pm curfew, one of the last steps in a phased lifting of Covid restrictions.

Last year’s festivities went ahead but were muted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, with the number of infections at their lowest level in nearly a year the country is in party mode once more.

While bad weather put a dampener on events in some cities, more hardy souls were undeterred.

Music enthusiasts participate in the French midsummer Festival of Music, Fête de la Musique on June 21, 2021 along the “Promenade des Anglais” on the French riviera city of Nice. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

“Seeing people, their smiles, it feels good,” said Laure, 40, who had taken her two nine-year-old children to a show despite the drizzling rain in the northwestern port city of Brest.

“We heard there were mini-concerts and we went out wanting to relax and enjoy ourselves.”

Music enthusiasts take part in the French midsummer Festival of Music, Fête de la Musique in Paris on June 21, 2021. (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

Police disperse the crowd during the French midsummer Festival of Music. (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

Jarre, Cerrone honoured

Groups of musicians from classical to rock played at pop-up events across the French capital, adding a new layer of life to the slowly reopening Parisian social scene.

Just days after the tennis open, centre court at Roland-Garros played host to around 40 artists, including Patrick Bruel, Vianney and Kendji Girac, performing in front of 4,000 seated and masked spectators.

Crooners gave way to dance tunes at the presidential palace, with French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre and 1970s disco king Cerrone headlining the concert in the courtyard where Macron normally greets visiting heads of state.

A demonstrator fights with anti-riot gendarmes during a second protest to mark the second anniversary of the death of Steve Maia Canico, a Frenchman who died after falling in the river following a police raid during France’s annual nationwide Fete de la Musique celebrations in 2019, in the city of Nantes on June 21, 2021. – Steve Maia Canico, 24-years-old, went missing on the night of June 21-22, 2019, after officers in the western city of Nantes moved in to disperse techno music fans attending a free concert as part of France’s national music celebration day. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

Macron conferred Legion of Honour decorations on both musicians.

Jarre dedicated the award to “the whole electronic music family, the DJs… the technicians who have really suffered during the pandemic.”

In contrast to previous editions, where Macron and his wife Brigitte have gamely joined in the dancing, concertgoers had to content themselves with tapping their feet.

A rock band performs live music in Soufflot street in front of a Cafe, as part of the French midsummer Festival of Music, “Fete de la Musique”, on June 21, 2021 in Paris. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Attendees were asked to remain seated and social distancing was observed.

To mark this year’s festival, the government announced that nightclubs, which have been closed for 15 months, will reopen on July 9.

Clubbers will have to present a new health pass showing they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, have a clean PCR test or have already had the virus.

Masks will not be obligatory in clubs, which will only be allowed to operate at 75 percent of their capacity, Alain Griset, the minister in charge of small businesses, said.

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FRENCH TRADITIONS

Why is May 8th a holiday in France, and will it remain a day off?

May 8th is VE Day, marking the end of fighting in Europe during World War II - but the story of how it came to be a public holiday in France is a complicated one, with the holiday still up for debate.

Published: 2 May 2023 11:58 CEST
Updated: 8 May 2024 07:21 CEST
Why is May 8th a holiday in France, and will it remain a day off?

May 8th was not always a public holiday in France, and it is not one in neighbouring Italy, where the fall of the Mussolini regime is celebrated on Liberation Day – April 25th.

By some measures August 25th would be a more fitting day for France’s public holiday, considering this is the date when Paris was liberated and the famed picture of General Charles de Gaulle walking down the Champs-Élysées was taken.

Or maybe even June 6th – the first day of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944 that marked the beginning of the end for the Nazi occupation.

But instead France celebrates the day that hostilities ended for the whole of Europe.

Among the Allied nations, Russia also recognises Victory Day but celebrates it on May 9th, due to time differences in the announcement of the end of the war. 

In the United Kingdom, May 8th is not a public holiday – instead November 11th (Armistice Day) commemorates the dead of all wars, while the United States celebrates Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, in addition to Veterans Day on November 11th. 

A tumultuous history for May 8th in France

Shortly after the war, in 1946, France’s government passed a decree recognising May 8th as the day to remember the Allied victory in Europe. The choice of this date aroused controversy from the beginning, as it coincided with the Catholic festival for Joan of Arc.

In 1953, at the behest of those who had survived deportations and members of the French resistance, May 8th was made into a public holiday, or jour férié.

However, only a few years later, it was abolished. In 1959, then-President De Gaulle scrapped VE Day from the calendar of public holidays – part of his goal of reducing the total number of public holidays in France.

Some historians, like André Kaspi, have noted that de Gaulle did not believe May 8th should be the date observed in France. 

“In the eyes of the general, the ‘Appel’ of June 18th [when de Gaulle broadcast a speech his speech from London urging the French to keep fighting] and August 25th – the day of the liberation of Paris – were more important”, Kaspi told Le Parisien.

Instead, for almost a decade, the end of World War II was marked on the second Sunday of May. In 1968, it was once again declared a public holiday, but this did not last long either. 

Under the presidency of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who hoped to improve Franco-German relations, the May 8th holiday was suspended once more.

Giscard d’Estaing hoped to replace it with a celebration for Europe Day, on May 9th – the anniversary of the 1950 Schuman Declaration, which proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, which would eventually become the European Union.

Giscard d’Estaing proposed making November 11th a day to commemorate all veterans. However, these plans were not met with support in France, and veterans’ associations protested. 

Finally, in 1981, president François Mitterrand put the day back on the calendar, once again marking May 8th as a public holiday in France.

How is it celebrated?

Each year there are ceremonies and wreath-laying events at war memorials and most workers are given a day off.

In Paris, the president lays a wreath at the foot of a statue of General de Gaulle at Place Clémenceau, then walks up the Champs-Élysées, surrounded by the Garde républicaine (Republican Guard), to the Arc de Triomphe. 

Emmanuel Macron (L) speaks to military officers at the Arc de Triomphe as part of the ceremonies marking the Allied victory against Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe (VE Day), in Paris on May 8, 2022. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / various sources / AFP)

The president then reviews the troops and lays another wreath, this time at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and rekindles the flame located there.

Across France, smaller ceremonies are also held in many communes.

Could the date change again?

Armistice Day on November 11th is classified as a “day to honour all the dead of France”.

André Kaspi, who authored a 2012 report on VE Day commemorations, told Le Parisien that is thus possible November 11th could be used to combine recognition for veterans of both World Wars, but “it would be a political mistake to do it too soon”.

“It is part of our patriotic memory, in the same way July 14th and November 11th are. Let us not forget that it also corresponds with the end of the concentration camps. As long as there are survivors, as long as the memory of this war exists, it must be preserved”, the historian said.

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