The Bayonne Festival has started with Patrick Bruel as guest star

The singer opened the festivities from the balcony of the city hall in front of thousands of people.

He was the surprise guest. Patrick Bruel appeared on the balcony of the town hall. As tradition dictates, he and other personalities threw the keys to the city to the festival-goers called “festayres” gathered on the Place de Liberté.

The opening ceremony began with a vibrant tribute to Patrice Laniès. This 46-year-old from Bayonne died during the last Bayonne Festival in 2023, after being beaten up following a remark made to a group of young party-goers who were urinating in front of his home. The crowd waved their red scarves and applauded for a minute.

After this great moment of emotion, the officials and guests came to greet the crowd. Then, Patrick Bruel, Jean-Claude Larrieu (former goalkeeper of Aviron Bayonnais, selected in the French team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976) and Ingrid Amigorena (captain of the AS Bayonne women’s rugby team) took part in the traditional key throwing.

The singer of Break the voice is a regular at the Bayonne Festival. He had already participated in its opening in 2000. “Having this fervor, this sharing, this desire to be together, to move forward in the same direction, I find that in these times, it’s something important and symbolic,” underlines Patrick Bruel, happy to share this experience for the second time.

The Bayonne Festival begins this year two weeks earlier, due to the Olympic Games. For four days and five nights, tourists and Bayonne residents will live to the rhythm of the various events offered in the city’s districts. Events where the Basque-Gascon tradition predominates: Basque pelota competitions, regional music and dances, bandas concerts, bullfights, cow races, float parades, etc.

Added to this festive programme are the strolls of the Lion King, the festival’s emblematic character, through the streets. The Bayonne Festival, which is considered one of the largest popular gatherings in Europe, attracted nearly 1.3 million party-goers last year, a record.

Bayonne Festival 2024 – From July 10 to 14.