the project of hymns sung by children’s choirs abandoned in the majority of stadiums to… protect the pitch

“For Fiji, ever Fiji…” The Fijian anthem but also the Japanese, Chilean or Portuguese, Anna has been repeating them every Tuesday evening for seven months. The 13-year-old girl was impatiently waiting to sing them in the Toulouse Stadium in September 2023. “We sang the hymns in the carsays his mother Laëtitia. She was super proud to be able to put on this show.”

In September 2022, 7,000 students from CM1 to Terminale were selected to sing along on the lawn before the anthems of the selections participating in the 2023 Rugby World Cup organized from September 8 to October 28, 2023. This initiative, called the Mêlée des Chœurs, was to be a nice adventure in Toulouse, Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux or Paris in which the children had invested a lot as well as their teachers. But a few days ago, via a letter sent to schools, they were informed that the project was largely abandoned.

A recorded version of the hymns broadcast

Hence the huge disappointment, when Anna and Laëtitia received the mail from France 2023, the organizer of the world, which franceinfo was able to read. President of the GIP France 2023, Jacques Rivoal, writes that a consultation was carried out with Word Rugby, the international federation, and it appears that it is impossible to sound the stadiums correctly and especially that the 300 young singers risk damaging the lawn ensures France 2023. Aberrant responds Laëtitia, at the origin of a petition on the Internet: “In the Toulouse Stadium, weren’t there any big concerts that were organized or were there children’s choirs who sang hymns?, she wonders. And yes, there were.”

Only the choirs planned at the Vélodrome in Marseille and at the Stade de France are maintained, but in limited numbers. In the other stadiums, a recorded version will be broadcast and the pupils will be invited to listen to it from the stands.