The head of the French government, who is celebrating his 35th birthday on Saturday March 16, will find himself at the heart of a “Joyeux bazaar”, the baptismal name for the inaugural celebration of “Montbéliard, French Capital of Culture” 2024.
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Dances, parades of geese and cows… and a Prime Minister. Gabriel Attal kicks off “Montbéliard, French Capital of Culture” 2024 on Saturday March 16, with an opening ceremony called “Joyeux bazaar”.
The Doubs agglomeration, 140,000 inhabitants, better known for its sausage, its automobile industry and the Sochaux football team, will increase its cultural events in the coming months. After a chaotic start, the Comtoise city convinced the new Prime Minister, who is celebrating his 35th birthday on Saturday, to come and inaugurate the festivities from 7 p.m.
Happy and crazy
The head of government, who was to go by bike to the opening ceremony, will ultimately be content to give the start to the 73 elected officials who will leave on two wheels from the city center to reach the “Happy Bazaar” a few kilometers from there. He must also inaugurate a music conservatory and give a speech before meeting with local elected officials.
Between a wyvern, a mythical creature 18 meters long, fireworks, a parade of Comtois horses and Montbeliard cows as well as wandering geese, the opening ceremony is deliberately intended to be crazy.
“We put together something good, even very good, in an extremely short time”declared to AFP Alexandre Gauthier, vice-president of Pays de Montbéliard Agglomération in charge of culture. “We wanted to make the country of Montbéliard known to the general public, by showing that we are a region that has fun, that innovates”.
A budget of 6 million euros for nearly 300 events
The “French Capital of Culture” label, awarded every two years by the ministry of the same name, distinguishes the cultural project of a municipality or a group of municipalities of 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. Montbéliard succeeds Villeurbanne (Rhône), which got the ball rolling in 2022.
The agglomeration project, however, had difficulty getting off the ground with the resignation of its artistic commissioner. Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture withdrew from the opening ceremony, as did Jamel Debbouze, who was to open the festivities.
The event has finally expanded and offers nearly 300 events over the year, 150 of which are the result of a call for projects, closed three months before its launch. The program had to be validated quickly by a new artistic curator composed of three local personalities. The 150 other projects, from the usual cultural programming of the city, were labeled for the occasion. All with a budget of 6 million euros, compared to 15 million for Villeurbanne. On the program: theater, music, street arts, discovery of heritage, gastronomy, exhibitions…
A completely free pop-up festival of current music will be held on June 27 in Audincourt. Olivier Grossetête, visual artist, will also create a monumental work based on recovered objects at the ancient Gallo-Roman theater of Mandeure, with the help of around a hundred residents.
Montbéliard was in the race against two other finalists, the towns of Alès (Gard) and Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain). The Franche-Comté city will benefit from funding of one million euros for 2024, provided equally by the Ministry of Culture and the Banque des Territoires (Caisse des Dépôts group).