REPORT. "Implementing a cultural policy must be prepared over time": what is the initial assessment of "Cultural Summer at the Campsite" launched by Rachida Dati?
Last May, the Minister of Culture launched a plan to bring culture closer to vacationers. In the middle of summer, franceinfo went to check how this announcement was received at campsites.
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"Making culture accessible everywhere and for everyone" outside of traditional venues. This is the commitment of the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, who unveiled her "Cultural Summer at the Campsite" plan on May 23. The announcement was made from a campsite in Canet-en-Roussillon, in the Pyrénées-Orientales.
To promote this operation, the ministry relied on the personality of Patrick Chirac, the hero of the Camping trilogy, played by Franck Dubosc. For her part, Rachida Dati spoke on social networks, mentioning "more than 1,000 activities, 1,000 events in the campsites, so I only have one thing to say, join us!" , we can hear in a video.
This summer, do as the @MinistereCC does: join us at the campsite! Culture is never on vacation! ☀️In Canet-en-Roussillon, as everywhere in France, campsites are becoming the biggest cultural stages for the first time!
Theater, music, screenings,… pic.twitter.com/NHJ9VBLnWM
Although the minister speaks of more than a thousand events, in reality it is much less, although the precise figure is impossible to determine, according to Yvan Navarro, co-secretary general of the CGT Culture. "It's quite difficult to know how many campsites will be affected and how many beneficiaries there will be, but we know that there are at least 500 concrete actions," explains the union representative, who points out that this figure should be put into perspective with the 7,000 existing campsites in France. He takes the example of Hérault and its 235 campsites, where there are only "four projects." "What does that mean, in fact ? How many people will we reach ?" he says, annoyed.
The other point of tension, probably the most critical, concerns financing . The measure is being implemented with a constant budget. The money we're going to put into campsites, we're going to take away from elsewhere," Yvan Navarro points out. This is enough to annoy the world of culture, which didn't fail to criticize Rachida Dati in comments under her announcement video. "You're making huge cuts to the Culture budget that are killing venues, theaters, associations, programmers, and companies, and you have the nerve to propose this?" , protests one Internet user, for example.
There is also a third criticism, that this operation was launched too quickly, "a big mistake for the co-general secretary of the CGT Culture. Implementing a cultural policy must be prepared over time and consulted."
Nonetheless, some projects have been launched, including concerts. The Jeunesses Musicales de France association, for example, is organizing around forty of them this summer. "It's true that it was quick, but it was doable; we didn't do things haphazardly either ," assures Ségolène Arcelin, director of the association.
"We really wanted to present all musical styles and not just those that are necessarily expected for a certain type of audience at a certain time."
Ségolène Arcelin, director of Jeunesse Musicales de Franceto franceinfo
Like this cello show, in a campsite on the Opal Coast, in Pas-de-Calais. "A family campsite, in a green setting ," describes Joséphine Couzin, from the Domaine du Blanc Pignon, who therefore decided to welcome Antoine Payen, cellist. "Not things we're used to doing..." , admits Joséphine, but something to "diversify our entertainment and then offer holidaymakers something different."
Tonycello, his stage name, is a clown who has to manage with his instrument. His show features a poem by Raymond Queneau and songs by Georges Brassens and Bobby Lapointe. This isn't the first time he's performed on stage at a campsite. "Sometimes it's outdoors, sometimes it's a bit hard because at the same time, there's the bouncy castle 20 meters away while I'm playing," admits Antoine Payen.
A performance that lasts almost an hour, in which he plays in particular the prelude to the cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach, and at the end, the audience is touched, moved. Pieces "admirably well" played, a show "that changes" around an instrument "that we don't know" , compliment the spectators. "It would perhaps be all that would be missing in a campsite, because there are many children who no longer touch a musical instrument now" , even underlines one vacationer.
Despite its limited resources and impact this summer, culture at the campsite is also a good initiative, because, as artist Antoine Payen concludes, "we must trust the public, consider people, and not denigrate the people at the campsite."
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