Large black tarps tour around the Cours Foucault in Montauban so that nothing filters through the preparation of the Lantern Festival. The fifth edition settles for the first time in the Tarn-et-Garonne between December 1 and February 5, after Blagnac and Gaillac for the previous editions.
A more immersive festival
A hundred Chinese workers and artists have been busy for a few weeks to assemble the structures, weld them and dress them in silk.
© Radio France
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Claudia Calmel
By December 1, 2500 lanterns will be installed by painters, seamstresses and welders. There will be, as every year, animals, flowers, pagodas, temples, but Patrice Gausserand, the organizer, promises a real renewal compared to previous editions: a more immersive festival: “This year, the objective is to have a total immersion of the visitor: when he will return to the park, he will be completely immersed with structures on either side more than five meters high. The visitor will be disconnected and forget that he is on Cours Foucault. For example, there will be a lotus tunnel. Most of the structures we will have this year in Montauban have never been built. Of course, there are always pandas, animals, dragons. But the feeling will be really different.”
© Radio France
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Claudia Calmel
A different audience?
A festival in Montauban which should attract a different audience from that of the Blagnac edition, according to Patrice Gausserand: “We see it in the reservations: there are people who come from Lot, Agen, Bordeaux, the Basque Country. We also have many Spaniards who have already booked. We will have a new clientele: Montauban is a motorway axis towards Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse and the sea; It really is an ideal location.”
© Radio France
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Claudia Calmel
The Lantern Festival of Montauban hopes to welcome between 380 and 450,000 visitors. There were 430,000 last season at Blagnac.
There will be no price change: it will be 19 euros at full price and free for children under 11. The organizers promise that there will be no parking problem: the Town Hall of Montauban will create seven car parks ephemeral with a system of shuttles during the festival.