There will not be a big Creole celebration this year in Nice. The Creole Festival, the third of its name, which was supposed to take place from September 11 to 18, was eventually canceled. The Mediterranean Caribbean Circle, which was at the origin of this event, placed under the high patronage of the President of the Republic and the Ministers of Culture and Tourism, is furious about this reversal from the Nice City Hall which had, for a time, collaborated on this project.
The CMC had obtained all the necessary funding as well as the “francofffonies” label, just like the support from significant private partners and had worked in collaboration with various services of the Nice City Hall, before facing a refusal on May 30, after several months of work on the organization.
Marie Reine de Johan, head of the CMC, reflects on this festival which ultimately will not take place… at least not in Nice!
Nice Première: Marie Reine de Johan, can you tell us more about the cancellation of your Festival in Nice?
MRJ: Oh dear! It would take telling you about twenty meetings at the city hall, from September 2005 when Mr. Richard Pogliano announced to me – in front of a witness – that the mayor wanted to develop the Creole Festival, to May 2006, when Mr. Jean-Claude Mari told me – still in front of a witness – that “The Creole Festival? It’s over! The city hall refuses!”
It would take describing our relentless efforts, our phone calls, faxes, and emails to the Antilles to contact partners, convince them, and bring them together. It would take sharing the enthusiasm of the artists and writers who all responded present, and finally, the icing on the cake, the mobilization of the Azuréen partners, who were seduced in turn, the local authorities, associations, companies.
The ax fell on May 30, 2006, on the eve of the press conference where the 3rd Creole Festival of Nice was to be presented, with no other explanation than the sharp smile of Mr. the Deputy Mayor, the mayor’s brother-in-law: “The Creole Festival! It’s over!”
NP: In your opinion, what were the reasons for this disengagement by the Nice City Hall?
MRJ: Reasons! You’re joking! Can’t you see that we are in the realm of the absurd and Kafkaesque.
Are you looking for logic in the tower of Babel that has become the Nice city hall, a monument of incoherence? I worked for 8 months in conjunction with a city hall service, in the name of the mayor. Another service sabotages me at the exit, still in the name of the mayor.
My interview published in Nice-Matin, under the title “Controversy around the cancellation of the Creole Festival” appears truncated, distorted.
Reasons? Hmm. Let’s see. Did someone have me in their sights? Or perhaps it was the Creole culture?
Or… the Creole community?
NP: How can a Festival under the high patronage of the President of the Republic and the Ministers of Culture and Tourism not interest a city like Nice?
MRJ: No indeed! It seems, the city hall of Nice is a family affair where they pass and repass the mustard and the senna while washing their dirty laundry in weekly cycles.
(and there is a lot of it). The family head decides, or his brother-in-law, or his wife. The President of the Republic? No importance. The ministers? Likewise.
NP: What are the possible recourses?
MRJ: Just one: information. We communicate with the media, opinion leaders, politicians, writers, artists, and the people of Nice, whom the city hall has been careful not to consult. The writer Raphaël Confiant suggests making a petition. It’s underway. And then… soon the elections.
NP: Where will you organize your next festival?
MRJ: A major city in the south has already contacted me. Before accepting, I will make sure there is neither a tower of Babel nor a treacherous operetta brother-in-law of the mayor.
