“There will be a queue”

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Three days before the start of the Festival of Lights in Lyon, the festival's boss, Julien Pavillard, answers questions fromnews Lyon.

As a reminder, millions of visitors are expected from this Thursday 5 and until Sunday December 8, 2024 for a 25th edition which will offer 32 illuminations, spread over 28 sites.

“Stars will be present”

Actu : What do you absolutely have to see for this 25th edition?

Julien Pavillard: As we celebrate 25 years, this edition will offer 32 works. Among all these, we find six special ones, which have already taken place and which marked the public or the media. The news is very good too, the novelty is the DNA of the party which shows the state of the art in the world.

We want to show that the festival is part of urban art, and art is cultural. It’s an opportunity to see different approaches to light, with great artists from around the world. Yes, stars will be present.

It will also be about raising awareness of the climate emergency, is this something that is close to your heart, and are you sure that it will be well understood and appreciated by the public?

J.P. : It’s true that we have been working, since the arrival of Grégory Doucet, on more eco-responsible events. Energy, waste, food, inclusiveness… We have criteria for artists. But they themselves are in a logic of reuse, for example of materials, with the least impact on the planet. We are going in the same direction with the artists.

We will have, for example, the work of the Place de la République which questions the relationship between man and the oceans thanks to a decoration of fake coral or old video projectors.

A Festival of Lights for tourists? His response

For some, the Festival is only aimed at tourists, are they right?

J.P. : Some people don't like the Festival of Lights, others say it's too far, for still others, there are too many people. The party is for everyone, we have tried to include the largest public, including returning to certain boroughs.

We know that 70% of visitors are people from Lyon and greater Lyon. It's a Lyonnais festival, created by Lyonnais. We have relatively few people of other nationalities, or even from other cities. This is often the case for major events.

Will it be possible to go see the works in the Tête d'Or park without waiting 2 hours in line?

J.P. : There was, at most during the last edition, a queue of 1 hour 30 minutes to access the park. This year, there will be a queue because people really like this natural heritage. So we tried to find solutions to make it more pleasant. We changed the places for entering and exiting. In addition, we will be able to find the Anookis in the queue. I also suggested that we no longer do a video loop so that traffic would be more fluid. We don't want to stop the park's activities, and we will be delighted if people come.

With attendance increasing, why not increase the number of days of the Festival?

J.P. : No, this is not planned, notably for security reasons. Many CRS companies come from all over France, this poses a lot of time constraints and this is mainly why we limit the number of hours of the Festival. It is rather the limit of the number of hours of illumination per day which is complicated for us, and which implies a complex organization.

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