After suspending all festivities prior to February 15, the Nord prefecture has just requested the total cancellation of the Dunkirk carnival, given the current circulation of covid-19.
“Even today, people are dying from Covid in Dunkirk.” The Nord prefecture adopted a particularly serious tone to announce the cancellation of the rest of the Dunkirk carnival festivities. The prefectural authority had first suspended all the festivities organized before February 15, hoping thereafter for an improvement and a relaxation of the health protocol.
Consulted, the Regional Health Agency had to be firm: the conditions are not met. “In the North, the health situation is still worrying with an incidence rate close to 4,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This rate is around 3,600 on the Dunkirk coast. The white plan is still activated in hospitals in the Hauts region. -de-France, with an occupancy rate of critical care beds of 87%” so reminds the prefecture.
The prefect “recommended without hesitation” organizers to cancel all planned festivities, and asks individuals not to organize anything at home. The Dunkirks must therefore sacrifice the “Trois Joyeux”, the heart of the carnival, scheduled from February 26 to 28. “Aware of the effort required of the inhabitants, associations and communities, for whom this historical tradition makes it possible to highlight the festive spirit of the territory, the prefect calls on everyone’s responsibility to control the spread of the virus.”
“The prefect does not really rule, he does not oblige, he recommends. Normally, it would rather be up to them to tell us clearly whether we are going or not. We have a meeting this Thursday with the 9 other presidents of the ABCD to make a unanimous decision”, said Thomas Dancel, president of the Dunkirk Carnival Balls Association (ABCD).
The mayors of the urban community of Dunkirk have announced their decision to follow this recommendation. Thus, no planned band on the community territory will take place. “The mayors are now calling on the responsibility of all carnival-goers to continue to respect barrier gestures and to fight against the pandemic” they wrote in a statement.