“Right now, yes. It feels so good!” 11 a.m., in front of the King René theater, next to the market halls, Alain is already on his second play. On the eve of the first round of legislative electionsthis start of the Avignon festival allows us to take our minds off things, “that’s why I’m here”, confirms this regular, “I’m going to see four plays today, the schedule is very busy“.
This 78th edition is special, the Olympic Games forced the organizers to bring it forward by a week. In addition to that, the Off should not officially start until July 3, but a quarter of the companies present this year decided to go four days earlyfocusing on the dates of In.
If for some, the room allows them to cut themselves off from the world, the favorite thing about this start of the festival for Christine is “Why Camille?” : “An interview between Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins’ wife. Camille Desmoulins has been arrested, she asks him to get him out, it questions friendship and reasons of state. I find that it has a lot of resonance with our current affairs.”
The first spectators, “locals”
A week before the start of the school holidays, the first festival-goers come mostly from the region, they are from Avignon, Gard, inhabitants of Drôme for example. Vincent and Anne come from Mazan, near Carpentras: “Every year, we are there from the first day, we have been doing the festival for 30 years. It’s our vacation, even though we don’t live far away, it’s our vacation! Our treatment of shows during the year.” With between 60 and 70 shows in three weeks! So Olympics or not, they plan to enjoy this festival too.
