“It was quite brutal since we have contact cases quite quickly, so we tested all the staff and we quarantined ourselves.“, begins Catherine Jacquart, director of the Parisian cabaret straight away. At Michou’s. For a week, his establishment has been closed. While the month of December is the month of the year when cabarets fill their treasury for the coming year.
The month of December, “the pillar month for everyone”
“People waited but canceled their reservation. It’s dramatic. The month of December is the month that allows us to live a whole year. It’s the holidays, all that is most beautiful“, regrets Catherine Jacquart.”We have already missed Christmas Eve and now we are missing New Years Eve“, deplores the director.
This situation weighs on his morale and that of his teams. “It is very stressful. We believe in it, we go back to it and then there is this mass that arrives suddenly. She is brutal and violent. It is very scary. We can’t project ourselves“, adds Catherine Jacquart. All Parisian cabarets are affected by this wave of covid. Some have closed before New Year’s Eve.”Because the idea for them is to save him at all costs“, reacts Daniel Stevens, general delegate of Camulc, the union represents cabarets and music halls.
“They closed as a precaution. But when I see the cancellations, the covid-19 problem, overall for the month of December, the numbers are going to be very, very bad. For some cabarets, this month is up to 3 times the equivalent of a normal month in terms of turnover. As we started to recover from the first waves we were on the uphill slope“, concludes Daniel Stevens. The sector could take several months to recover from this health crisis.