Cultural venues have not regained their audience, despite the easing of health restrictions, according to a study carried out in early September by Harris Interactive. A study that must officially unveil Wednesday, October 27, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot. “We are very low, with a few exceptions”, estimated the same day on franceinfo, Olivier Haber, general manager of the musical Seine, and member of Prodiss, the employers’ union of the performing arts.
franceinfo: Nearly one in two French people have not been to a cultural venue since the introduction of the health pass on July 21. What does this survey say, have you already seen it at each concert?
Olivier Haber: Yes it is a finding that we have since the start of the school year, even a little before. Today we have a really shared feeling. We are happy to find the artists and the public, and still very worried because it is true that the public today has not regained its pre-Covid-19 habits. We have a lot less offers, with international artists who are not present for this fall, some major projects have decided to postpone their production to 2022 or even 2023. For example, here we have a big stage, we have a large hall: we have four times fewer shows on offer. So obviously we welcome less public. And then for the shows presented, at the time we were shooting at more than 70% fill on average. Today we find ourselves with shows between 30 and 70% filling, so extremely low for some. Others a little higher which find the usual rates, but it is especially those which were already on sale before and which knew postponements. In fact, we have been accumulating spectators for almost two years in order to be able to reach the usual rates.
Have you noticed that things have started to rise a little again in recent weeks?
Yes, September was a lot better than before, October is a lot better, but we’re starting from so low that in the end that doesn’t mean much. When we compare ourselves with reference years, we are very low, with a few exceptions. We have things up for sale from time to time, it makes us all happy and it is very important for the dynamism of the market. But it is for 2022 and 2023. The urgency is for today. This audience absolutely has to come back to the theaters. Some say it’s the health pass. I rather think that it is also a habit of consumption. Above all, I think that people have had a terrible lack of conviviality and that today, when they have the possibility of going out, they first prefer restaurants and bars, where we also need the sanitary pass. So it is not a matter of health pass. But if you go to a restaurant at night, you don’t go to the show because it’s at the same time. So there are choices that have been made, and we will have to switch back to a balance between those who go to restaurants and those who go to places of culture.
A third of those questioned in the survey say that they will visit places of culture less. How to bring them back?
This is perhaps the most worrying. It’s hard to understand why. It may be a bit early to make a decision. Of course, there are habits that will change. Will people who have left large cities as part of teleworking go less to concerts at the end of the week? It’s possible. It is also up to us to adapt, to see if the two-year or three-year upstream sales are perhaps over. Perhaps we need to react faster, be more in line with consumer expectations. It’s a bit early to comment on it.
Can it go through a policy of more attractive prices?
It is possible, but it may be more for next year. If all goes well we will have a plethora of offers in the entertainment world since we will see the postponement of the last two years. And there, obviously not everyone will be able to see all the shows. So we will certainly have to review pricing policies to be able to offer people to see more shows, which they used to do. Which is not the case this year. We have fewer offers, so today spectators should be able to make their choice. I am not convinced that the tariff subject is the subject of this year, maybe after.