The 151 members of Sonerien an Oriant were invited, Saturday November 2, 2024, to the general assembly of the Lorient association for Breton culture and music.
The opportunity to approach the celebrations expected for 2025, after a particularly rich year 2024, the first under the presidency of percussionist Matthieu Deloffre.
The past year was marked by “three highlights”returns the new president. First, two of the association’s three musical groups, the bagad de Lorient, which has 63 bell ringers, and the bagadig (bagad music school), each participated in the two bagadù championship competitions.
The bagad “stayed in the middle of the table” of the first category (10e out of 14), “the equivalent, for bagadouest, of Ligue 1 in football”while bagadig rose from fourth to third category in “brilliantly winning the summer competition organized in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) July 6 ».
Festival shortened
Second highlight: the Lorient Interceltic Festival (Fil). This year, despite a shortened thread due to the Olympic Games, “we kept the usual level of performances, with around ten performances for the bagad and as many for the bagadig”.
Finally, the « sorties » constituted the third highlight of the association, with “quite a few local outings”, as well as a stay in Avilés (Asturias, Spain) at the end of July, but, above all, as a highlight, in September, an unforgettable trip to Shanghai, China. “ It’s a destination that you only check off once, unlike trips to our Celtic cousins in Asturias or Galicia”book Mathieu Deloffre.
Boredom banished from the program
Of course, “we can’t do this kind of trip every year”recalls Matthieu Deloffre. Its cost, €45,000, is almost equivalent to the association’s annual budget, of between 50,000 and 60,000 euros.
However, “boredom will not be part” of the program in 2025, smiles the musician. In addition to the usual bagadouest competitions and outings, the Lorient bagad is preparing to participate in a concert organized by the Lorient Harmony Orchestra, as part of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the city’s Pocket.
He also plans to offer new performances of his show Portscreated in 2023, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.
