the essential
In addition to the protective panels of the stores, local institutions have created works in honor of the bandas to adorn the city with the colors of the festival a few hours before the opening of the 51st edition.
The most visible of their works currently adorn storefronts, sealed off for the weekend. Over the years, the city’s schools, leisure centers, cultural associations, nursing homes and seniors’ reception centers have produced numerous creations that beautify the heart of the city during the festival.
Since last year, given the success of this initiative, the organizers have even had to find new creative supports.
“We don’t always have many merchants who entrust us with their protective panels to be painted. However, many services and institutions are up for decorations every year,” explains Françoise Dorbes, the festival’s general secretary. “We therefore had paintings prepared so that these artists could express themselves and their creations decorate other sites. It started with the festival restaurant, where the latest paintings created are installed, those from last year having joined the cloister.
This new series of a dozen paintings, works of students from LaFontaine, and Mendès-France, but also residents of the Ténarèze nursing home in particular, was inaugurated by the leaders of the festival, the mayor Jean-François Rousse and the school representatives. With a city decked out in red and white, stands and stages set up for the arrival of musicians, everything is now ready for the opening of the festival this Friday at 6:30 p.m.
