Victim of the continued growth of its popularity, the Festif de Baie-Saint-Paul is now forced to find solutions to curb the increase in the number of festival-goers, in order to preserve the spirit of a musical festival that aims to be convivial and comes especially in the heart of a small municipality.
The figures speak for themselves: the first edition of the Festif, in 2010, attracted around 2,000 people. But that of 2022 saw more than 40,000 people flock to Baie-Saint-Paul, a Charlevoix municipality of less than 7,500 inhabitants. And everything indicates that the craze is not waning. Even before the program was unveiled on Tuesday, almost all accommodations were already full for the July 2023 edition.
General and artistic director of the event, Clément Turgeon recognizes from the outset that the growth in the number of music lovers and summer festivities is no longer possible. “We don’t want to reduce the number of festival-goers, but we don’t want to increase it, because we know that we could reach a turning point where there would be too many people. Our formula involves being in the city center, with shows in the courtyard of residents. So we see that we have reached saturation. »
A point of view shared by the mayor of the municipality, Michaël Pilote. “Le Festif can no longer be in growth mode. It must be in consolidation mode. It is clear that we are at full capacity, after several years of growth,” he underlines. “The festival is held in a living environment, in the heart of Baie-Saint-Paul. Residents have no choice but to be part of the equation. It’s not like an event that takes place on a site on the outskirts or on a planned site, such as the Plains of Abraham, for example. »
From one year to the next, we notice that the public is more and more numerous, attracted by the heavy musical programming, the dozens of free shows, the resolutely festive atmosphere in the middle of July and the image of the Festive brand, widely distributed on social networks with a lot of photos and videos.
For some residents and merchants, however, these three days have become a serious irritant, in particular because of the noisy night shows, the traffic in businesses and the behavior of some festival-goers. “Generally, the population is behind the organization of the festival, but there are people who do not participate in the Festif and who go to do their grocery shopping before the start of the festival and stay away,” summarizes Mr. Pilote.
“A beautiful problem”
“We noticed, for example, that some people came to squat the campsites, but that’s not what we want. And for the floating stage, there were too many people for the concept to remain safe. There were also people who passed through the land of the citizens, ”admits Clément Turgeon himself.
This stage, installed on the Gouffre River at each edition since 2019, was removed for the 2023 edition. The same goes for two other stages which extended the territory occupied by the shows on the Festif schedule. The campsite will now be reserved for festival-goers who hold tickets, the shows will no longer continue until Sunday evening, security will be reinforced and measures are planned to reduce the road congestion that characterizes each edition.
“It was important to sit down to see what works well and what works less well, to adjust the shots. There are points to improve, even if the collaboration is excellent with the organizers”, argues the mayor, who held a “public consultation” on the festival at the start of the year, in collaboration with the organization of the Festif .
It now remains to be seen what the impact of the changes made for the 2023 version, which will be the 14e for the festive. The general manager admits to being unfamiliar with the idea of stopping the progression of recent years. “It’s a nice problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless. It’s easier to manage growth, to see more people come to the Festif. But there, we have to slow down our momentum, which is not easy. »
“We don’t want to sanitize the festival and lose all the unique experience that we manage to create. We just want to find a balance,” he adds. Mayor Michaël Pilote believes that the municipality will continue to “live in a bubble” during the three days of the event. “But the Festif is a great influence card in Quebec and internationally. Many people hear about Baie-Saint-Paul with the Festif and then come back to visit us. »