Covid-19: the Angoulême Festival 2022 towards a probable cancellation – archyde

Scheduled from January 27 to 30, 2022, the 49^e edition of the Angoulême International Comics Festival (FIBD) should bear the brunt of the new restrictions intended to slow the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic and its variants. “We will probably not be able to hold the next festival”, entrusts to World Franck Bondoux, the general delegate of the most important European event dedicated to the ninth art. Announced by the government on Monday, December 27, the new gauges for sporting and cultural events – set at 2,000 people maximum in indoor enclosures and 5,000 for outdoor structures – make it almost impossible to organize the event, mixing literary fair (exhibitions, conferences, etc.) ) and book fair (stands, signatures, etc.).

Even though the measures in question are only planned for a period of three weeks from the beginning of January, “The risk of seeing them prolonged is considerable”, explains Franck Bondoux. This cancellation would be the second in a row for the FIBD which, in 2021, had considered postponing the festival to the beginning of the summer, before giving up again, under sanitary pressure.

As soon as the new restrictions were known, the management of the event initiated consultations with its private and public partners in order to examine a postponement in the course of the year 2022. “The ideal would be to resubmit the festival soon enough, before the first round of the presidential election [le 10 avril 2022], either at the end of March, or at the very beginning of April “, adds a particularly annoyed FIBD boss: “Unlike 2021 where the cancellation had been announced sufficiently in advance, the 2022 edition is ready to be delivered on a purely organizational level. The entire budget has also been committed to keeping it. “

And Franck Bondoux to demand, as of now, exceptional aid from the State, on the model of that allocated by the Ministry of Culture, in 2021, through the “exceptional support fund for festivals” (from a total amount of 30 million euros). “This event, which radiates around the world, needs special attention from the ministry. Its sustainability is at stake, particularly in view of its fiftieth anniversary, scheduled for 2023. The hour is serious, we must save the festival soldier ”, asserts the general delegate of the FIBD.