In the Loire, the misunderstanding of the Les Bravos de la nuit festival in the face of the reduction in subsidy from the AURA region

Festival dedicated to contemporary theater and young creation, Les Bravos de la nuit à Pélussin will celebrate their 35th edition this year from August 20 to 27. Fifteen days of celebrations with a week of residence and a week of festival.

The atmosphere is intended to be friendly, family, with daytime shows for children, and others in the evening, informal meetings between professionals and the public, all in a Loire town which today has 3,800 inhabitants.

It all started in 1987 when theater artists came in residence in Pelussin to create a theater performance. In exchange for presenting their play to the general public, they were welcomed. A year later, the association Les Bravos de la Nuit was born to continue the adventure.

Here, the shows take place in the heart of the city, in an old hall, an interior courtyard, a garden, a garage, a park. For two weeks, nearly 90 volunteers are mobilized to welcome 70 entertainment professionals over two weeks.

If the city saw the birth of Gaston Baty, theoretician and reformer of the theater (who founded with Louis Jouvet, Charles Dullin and Georges Pitoëff, “the Cartel”, an association intended to promote avant-garde theater), it does not have however no theater. “One of the aspects of the Bravos of the night explains Michel Dévrieux, the mayor (SE) of Pélussin, it is to bring in people who are not used to culture and who do not go to the big cities in Lyon or elsewhere”. Because the capital of Gaul is 53 km from Pélussin, Saint-Etienne 40 km. Discouraging distances at a time when refueling is becoming a luxury…

Hence the incomprehension in the face of the drop in subsidy from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region led by Laurent Wauquiez. A decrease of 15% which cuts the budget by 2250 €. The sum does not seem huge, of course, but for a “small” festival financed for the most part by the town hall (to the tune of 12,000 euros), it is nevertheless a worrying sign. “It’s not gonna make us limp recognizes Eric Borgio, the president of the association Les Bravos de la Nuit. But that questions our action. We know that we are responding to a local demand.”

Difficult for him to find an explanation for such a decision which, according to Laurent Wauqiez’s cabinet, would aim to rebalance subsidies throughout the AURA region. The idea, give less to large city institutions in favor of small structures or more rural festivals. In this logic, it is difficult to understand the drop in subsidies announced for Les Bravos de la nuit.

I don’t see any justification for the work we do all year round with the children, with the teenagers. We live, we work on this territory and suddenly, we are no longer followed

Eric Borgio

President of the association “Les Bravos de la Nuit”

Because if the festival takes place at the end of August, it offers actions all year round, especially for teenagers. Since 2006, Les Bravos des adolescents has been offering a group of voluntary college students a concrete approach to acting work free of charge in the form of internships. A year-round prepared show is performed during the festival.

According to Le Petit Bulletin, in the Loire, 7 festivals or structures would be affected by these reductions in subsidies, in particular in Saint-Etienne where the Cité du Design would lose 180,000 euros and the Ecole de la Comédie de Saint-Etienne 30 000 euros.

And there will be no turning back, at least not right away. On Wednesday May 25, the Permanent Regional Commission of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes approved a large part of the cuts in subsidies to 140 cultural actors. At the same time, the commission voted a support plan for festivals that have suffered from the pandemic. An emergency fund has been created (500,000 euros have already been raised) so that the most solid structures help those who are unable to recover from the health crisis.