Overabundant supply, inflation in production costs, decline in purchasing power, shortage of experienced personnel, concern is eating away at the contemporary music sector behind the reassuring image of the crowds in front of the stages of certain festivals this summer.
“When we say the festivals are resuming, we must not think that we have regained the growth of 2019 before the health crisis. This is not the case”summarizes for AFP Malika Seguineau, head of Prodiss, national union of musical and variety shows, met at the Francofolies in La Rochelle.
This festival was full, as was the Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix, 280,000 spectators this summer, “we will be in the green”according to its director Jérôme Tréhorel.
But this is not the case everywhere. And the summer meetings went through occasional turbulence this year (heat wave, torrential rain, artists canceling for Covid-19) but above all structural.
Malika Seguineau describes a “slow and difficult recovery”. “The French have changed their behavior, they buy tickets very late, saying to themselves: ‘If I have the Covid, I will have to cancel’, and also sometimes already have three postponed shows in their hands”she explains.
The leader of Prodiss also puts forward a “context which is not at the party between war in Ukraine, presidential election in France – always a suspended time – and the question of purchasing power”.
After two summers at half mast, or almost, the festivals wanted to work twice as hard and offer exceptional posters.
If the Hellfest (Clisson, Loire-Atlantique) won its bet (350 groups, 420,000 spectators), the Aluna Festival (Ruoms, Ardèche) saw too much with four days. And too many headliners (Fire! Chatterton, Julien Doré and Angèle the same evening), as its president Jean Boucher said on the microphone in front of the public.
“It’s crazy the number of festivals. Artists’ fees are rising and ticket prices have not increased”notes for AFP Gérard Pont, boss of the “Francos”. “Between postponements, new projects, there are more proposals, which cost more to organize, and no more audience with less purchasing power. It doesn’t work”confirms to AFP Jérôme Tréhorel, director of the Vieilles Charrues.
At the end of June, there were the same dates for the Aluna Festival, Hellfest, Solidays in Paris and the concert of the behemoths of Iron Maiden in Paris. Same thing in mid-July between the Francofolies, the Vieilles Charrues, the Lollapalooza in Paris and the Coldplay concert in the capital.
“There was congestion and precipitation. Programming in the same Vianney region 15 times does not work”
Malika Seguineauhead of Prodiss, national union for musical and variety shows
“In the context of the war in Ukraine, the health crisis, the festivals – these cities which are emerging from the ground – have been confronted with the shortage of raw materials and the fees of artists – deprived of touring for two years – which are increasing : we arrive at a cost increase between 15% and 20%”she adds.
“In this global context of inflation, shortages, events are going to the carpet, with production costs increasing by up to 20-30%”, figure on his side Jérôme Tréhorel. The RhinoFéRock festival, in Vaucluse, which was to program Benjamin Biolay, Gaëtan Roussel or Hoshi, has thus canceled for all these reasons.
Without forgetting, as Gérard Pont says, “a lot of pros (technicians) who retrained during the health crisis, hence competition between festivals for a know-how that has become rare and expensive”.
“Even being complete, some festivals will be loss-making”
Jerome Trehoreldirector of the Old Plows
The Prodiss will “a review in September”with already in view for Malika Seguineau a “reflection on an economic model perhaps at the end of a cycle”. “We are not asking to live on a drip, but we are saying that we need a stronger CNM (Centre national de la musique), to respect its commitment to develop structuring support programs, to help us take risks”.