Par
Arnaud Héroult
Published on
June 20, 2024 at 5:04 p.m.
See my news
Follow Liberté Caen
For the 150,000 spectators of the event, the Beauregard festival in Hérouville Saint-Clair at the gates of Caen (Calvados) consists of five days of celebration and 41 concerts.
43 days of festival in all
Behind the scenes, these are 43 days whohave counted : five for concerts, 22 for assembly and 17 for dismantling. “We started on June 10 and we will hand over the site on July 24,” summarizes Paul Langeois, the co-director of the festival, quite confidently.
We are on time, we haven’t suffered too much rain, we have good working conditions.
Thursday June 20, 2024, less than two weeks before the launch, around a hundred people work in the parkof the castle completely fenced for security reasons. Inside, the teams follow “an established order”,
For assembly, like in a puzzle, we first go around.
First step, “there must be nothing on the site so as not to interfere”, the overhead passage of all the wires and cables. Then, the assembly of all the structures (tents, marquees) which will be completed on Monday June 24. “That’s quick, what takes time is the interior design of these structures. »
Homemade
Although the organization of course uses external service providers, the festival prides itself on being quite “autonomous, we rent very little”. The electricity is homemade, as are the furniture, the counters, the decorations “made and repaired during the year. So much equipment which is used from one season to the next and stored in “a 2,500 m2 warehouse on five levels”.
This is one of the keys to the success of the largest musical garden party in Normandy: “What we offer is not seen anywhere else at other festivals. »
Parking: fear for 2025
In Beauregard, 50% of festival-goers use soft mobility: this represents 3,000 cyclists per day (10% of the public) and 40% come and leave by bus. For spectators coming by car, the public car park is located on the other side of the canal, 1.9 km from the entrance to the site. Due to the future district of the peninsula in Hérouville, a road will be built in place of the parking lot, “perhaps from 2025”, worries Paul Langeois who is “looking for solutions”, to park 3,000 cars.
Night work
Last stage of assembly, the arrival before the last weekend and the elevation of the two giant stages which must be equipped. First sound, then video and light. The projectors which “are adjusted at night between the Tuesday and Wednesday of the first concert. “It’s called encoding, a team is dedicated to it,” explains Paul Langeois.
Lots of work for the concerts too
But don’t think that on Wednesday July 3 in the morning the technicians will bring out their flip-flops. That day for the opening of Beauregard, it was David Guetta with his show The Monolith Tour. “In fact, we validated our festival light kit on Wednesday night, we removed it and installed David Guetta’s kit. »
And repeat Wednesday evening and so on. “Thursday, for Justice and Bring Me the Horizon, there are also special kits. That’s a lot of changes, even during the festival. »
Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon -.
