What remains of Lille 2004?

VSt was a little over twenty years ago, but the people of Lille are far from having forgotten what they did on Saturday December 6, 2003. An indelible date in the collective memory of the inhabitants of the city, the metropolis and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais: that of the fanfare launch of Lille 2004, European capital of culture. The temperatures are negative that day. It even snowed a little in the morning. However, a human tidal wave invades all the streets of the city center. By mid-afternoon, the influx was so dense that cell phones no longer rang.

“We were expecting 40,000 people; 700,000 came, enthuses Didier Fusillier, great architect of the event, now president of the Réunion des musées nationaux and the Grand Palais. We could no longer enter the city. At Lille Flandres station, people could no longer get out of the trains, the Brussels-Lille motorway was completely clogged. It was insane, no one had ever seen that! » The popular success of the opening parade is thus accompanied by a good scare. “It could have turned into a tragedy if there had been crowd movements, we were not far from absolute disaster”remember the spectators still stunned by this intense bubbling.

Month after month, the frenzy does not subside: some 2,500 cultural events are organized in Lille and throughout the region, as far as neighboring Belgium. There are so many that the public is sometimes stunned by all these proposals. The city invites a multitude of international artists who do not hesitate to install an upside-down forest on the Grand’Place, or to flood the Lille Europe station with pink – in front of which has just blossomed The Tulips of Shangri-La, by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

The dynamic is underway

The “Rubens” exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts was a hit: more than 310,000 visitors in three months. The Lille Opera reopens its doors after several years of work. The Tripostal, built for mail management in the 1950s, is changing its purpose and dedicating its 6,000 square meters to contemporary art. Twelve Folie houses were created, cultural centers nestled in the heart of neighborhoods, in old factories or rehabilitated heritage sites. The Lille-Sud Sliding Hall is launched. The Lille 2004 fireworks display transformed the appearance of the capital of Flanders, as well as part of the metropolitan territory.

If it came to fruition at the end of 2003, this urban metamorphosis project had its origins in the mid-1990s. The mayor (PS) of Lille, Pierre Mauroy, was then aware of the need to strengthen the attractiveness of an urban area devastated by deindustrialization and associated with a sad grayness. Accompanied by an informal network of economic and political decision-makers, the Grand Lille Committee, he decided to nominate the northern city for the 2004 Olympic Games. It was not selected, but a dynamic was set in motion between the actors of the territory , who put together a new file to the point of seeing Lille designated, in the summer of 1999, European Capital of Culture 2004 (in tandem with Genoa, in Italy).

No question of skimping on resources

First deputy, then mayor of Lille from 2001, Martine Aubry is part of the continuity. Like her predecessor, who relied on the creation of the Lille National Orchestra in 1976, in the midst of an industrial collapse, she believed in culture as a vector of social progress. There is no question of skimping on the means to restore the colors of the northern city: nearly 74 million euros are committed to the operation – not to mention the tens of millions devoted to major infrastructure. Private partners are putting in 12 million euros.

“Lille 2004 gave us ten years of notoriety,” Martine Aubry repeats over and over again, at the end of twelve full months of festivities. With this event, on which it communicates massively, the city gives pride to its inhabitants and improves its image, in France and abroad. British, Belgians, Dutch and Germans come to discover it by the thousands, some staying in new hotels like L’Hermitage Gantois, a luxuriously restored 4-star hotel, a few steps from the town hall.

From Lille 2004 to Lille 3000

Twenty years later, the tourist flow has not dried up, sustained by great cultural moments, such as the Spring of the Impressionists, or sports, with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which relocated to Villeneuve-d’Ascq 52 basketball matches and handball. The other lasting effects of the event seem more difficult to assess, according to two university theses on the subject. “The Lille 2004 evaluation produced mixed results, concluded Lille economist and urban planner Thomas Werquin in 2006. Its media impact is limited and its effects in terms of influence appear weak. » And to highlight in particular the few jobs created… At the end of 2020, the work of sociologist Damien Dusseaux also highlights the lack of concrete data regarding the impacts caused and above all describes a phenomenon of increased politicization of culture. “Martine Aubry has made it her trademark as a local elected official and national public figure: culture, that’s her”, he notes. With this event, the socialist definitively established itself in the city.

His assistant for culture, Marie-Pierre Bresson, highlights the efforts undertaken in terms of cultural democratization, the numerous actions carried out with all children and their parents: “Here, culture is obvious. And what distinguishes Lille from all other European capitals of culture is the choice to organize successive reissues every three years. » Very quickly, the city decided to extend the Lille 2004 experience by creating major recurring thematic seasons, with the Lille 3000 program, entrusted to the association bringing together the main leaders of the initial project. At the forefront, the essential Didier Fusillier developed the concept and took over new locations such as the Saint-Sauveur station – on the occasion of the Europe XXL event in 2009.

His successor, Jean-François Chougnet, who managed the operations of Marseille-Provence European Capital of Culture in 2013 and the Mucem, is currently preparing the seventh thematic season of Lille3000. Entitled Fiesta, it will take place from April 26 to November 9, 2025. It should begin with a lighter parade, re-studied to meet new security requirements. Total public budget for this next triennium: approximately 14 million euros. “The same amount, almost, as for previous editions”specifies Jean-François Chougnet.

A model running out of steam

For the occasion, the Tripostal will host modern and contemporary works on loan from the Center Pompidou (closed for renovations between 2025 and 2030), until November 2. A partnership that the Parisian museum will extend at the LaM in Villeneuve-d’Ascq in 2026 with a Kandinsky retrospective (between February and May) and an exhibition devoted to the drawings of Antonin Artaud (in the fall). An attractive program which does not prevent Lille 3000 from having its detractors. “The model of parades has worn out, judge the Renaissance MP Violette Spillebout, former chief of staff of Martine Aubry who moved to the opposition and already a candidate for the belfry for 2026. The concept is no longer identified, it’s always the same thing, there is no longer any support. »“There is a habit, it’s true, but it goes hand in hand with a form of regularity, contests Marie-Pierre Bresson. For the city’s cultural operators, who are sometimes in an extremely fragile situation, this recurrence is also an assurance. »

Many Lille cultural actors, however, deplore the running out of steam of a model to which they say they have not always felt as associated as they would have liked. “At the time, everyone looked towards Lille; today, there are plenty of places in France where much more interesting and stronger things are happening, like in Bordeaux or Nantes”, estimates a local cultural actor. Who, like others, questions the sustainability of the Lille 3000 system after the departure of Martine Aubry – who announced that she would not stand for re-election in the 2026 municipal elections.

“You always have to try to reinvent yourself, of course, but why change a concept that has worked well and works well?still working? asks Caroline David, artistic advisor in the Lille 3000 team and exhibition curator. If all this were to end one day, I am sure that, a few years later, there would still be nostalgia, that of a great era. »

Sixteen priorities

Proof that Lille can still be a leader in terms of culture: while the Lille 3000 Utopia season ended in the fall of 2022, the city launched a “call to act for a less carbon-intensive and more inclusive culture”. Around fifty European cities (including around fifteen in France, such as Bourges, which will be European Capital of Culture in 2028, or Avignon, Montpellier, etc.) have already signed it. Preserving resources through more sustainable public procurement, reducing carbon emissions due to the mobility of artists and the public, encouraging local artistic creation or optimizing the energy efficiency of cultural buildings are some of the sixteen priorities listed. “Lille remains a pioneer. When it comes to culture, we have stayed one step ahead,” says Marie-Pierre Bresson.

It is also no coincidence that the Hauts-de-France region, led by Xavier Bertrand since 2015, has also made culture a marker of its policy, increasing its 2024 budget by 3% (to reach 110 .8 million euros). In 2018, it obtained – jointly with the city of Lille – the installation of the Séries Mania festival, free, whose last edition, in March, once again broke attendance records with 98,000 spectators, or 15% more than in 2023. A new totem behind which the cultural and creative industries sector is developing – which has 14,000 jobs and 1,120 companies in the Lille metropolis. Enough to draw a new horizon. Among the 68 projects selected by the State in its call for projects La Grande Fabrique de l’image, five are located in Hauts-de-France §