Spectator in Avignon, a real job. Whether you are a veteran, a “loyal since 1970” and member of an association of friends of the festival, like Pierre Paton, or a “perfect novice” as Léa, a 22-year-old from Nantes who will experience her second festival this summer, defines herself.
«Last year I came with my grandmother, who had taken care of everything. But today, I am alone in charge», smiles the history student, who took care to reserve her seats as soon as the ticket office opened. She actually wanted “absolutely return to the main courtyard. It is the mythical place in Avignon, where it all began. I find it a beautiful symbol that the opening show is entrusted to a woman, the Spanish director Angélica Liddell.
Pierre Paton could only welcome Léa’s state of mind and is delighted that the event is constantly seeking to renew its audience, “by encouraging, for example, secondary school students in the region to familiarise themselves with the stage professions. The history of the festival consists, since Jean Vilar, of the conjunction of creation and classics, with the desire to transmit from generation to generation the heritage and love of theater», he pleads. Within its association, which brings together around thirty active people who can be mobilized in case of need, everyone attends “around ten shows in the “in”, some also frequenting the “off””.
Politics still “invited” to Avignon
These committed amateurs meet up to exchange their impressions and do not hold back “to provide feedback to the organizers in a kind but very free manner.” For them, the back and forth between the stage and the ” real life “ contribute to the uniqueness of Avignon. “From the events of 1968 to the strike of intermittent workers and the cancellation of the festival in 2003, political events have always been present in force,” assures Pierre Paton.
He also remembers the attacks in Nice on July 14, 2016. “The climate was one of anxiety but Avignon continued, it was very strong, really moving. » Pierre Paton easily imagines that the issues of the legislative elections will become a subject of major debate from the opening of the 2024 edition. Léa also expects “lively exchanges and perhaps demonstrations in the streets»…
Get involved in the festival
Widely open to Hispanic theatrical expressions, the 2024 edition could not leave Juan Francisco Grima Alarcon indifferent. This Spanish teacher at the Mistral high school has been based in Avignon since the 1990s. Within the Hispanic culture association Contraluz, he provides concrete help to the festival: “I notably accompanied the Argentine playwright Tiziano Cruz and ensured the surtitling of his show Soliloquy. » (1)
And if the month of July shines like a theatrical apotheosis under the Provençal sky, preparation for the festival takes place all year round. “Aficionados meet up at the presentation sessions and, as soon as the rental opens, in the queue, this ritual not to be missed where the new programming is discussed, evokes the great times gone by…”
Spectators on stage
Juan Francisco Grima Alarcon is not unaware that a part of the Avignon people “stay away from the demonstration, suspicious and even critical – “we are no longer at home” – without depriving themselves, for some, of renting their accommodation at a high price! » But he prefers to dwell on the enthusiasm or, at least, the curiosity of those “who are proud that their city of 80,000 inhabitants welcomes the whole world.”
The festival sometimes even offers the most motivated spectators the opportunity to go on stage. For Juan Francisco Grima Alarcon, it was in 2008 in Inferno based on Dante, a show by Romeo Castellucci, an artist to whom he has immense admiration. “I had the unforgettable chance to be a “complementary actor” among the damned. »
(1) Tiziano Cruz is expected in Soliloquy from July 5 to 13 and in My brothers and sisters from July 10 to 14.
