To allow the setup of the four stages for “Tous à Nice!”, line 1 of the tramway is partially cut from June 13 to 24. Service is interrupted between the Masséna and Opéra-Vieille-Ville stations.
Between 2:00 PM and 12:40 AM on June 21, no trams will operate between the Garibaldi and Gare Thiers stations. Lignes d’Azur recommends that users take bus line 4 between the Exhibition Palace and the SNCF station.
For a day of celebration, the city is split in two, penalizing tram users for eleven days. For a concert broadcast on television, the essence of the Fête de la Musique is forgotten—its richness and eclecticism, its spread throughout all neighborhoods of the city, its spirit of discovery and freedom.
We all love the Fête de la Musique and the carnival, but what is this strange idea of systematically organizing Nice’s events at Place Massena, fortifying the square, splitting the city in two, and ultimately stripping these festivities of their original spirit?
The carnival, a popular and spontaneous celebration, has slowly been sanitized, commercialized, ultra-secured, and ultimately denatured (read here). The jazz festival, the book festival, and other events, under the guise of security, have become closed, highly controlled spaces. Horrible black fences regularly impose themselves on Nice, breaking the city’s aesthetics. By continually reducing culture, sports, and popular festivities to mere events and trying to control everything, the City of Nice makes these moments of sharing that rhythm our local life lose their meaning and uniqueness. Place Massena and the Promenade du Paillon, places of life and exchange, become permanent event platforms. And the Castle Hill, under the guise of redevelopment, risks the same fate.
The Fête de la Musique 2019 replicates the municipality’s pitfalls: for one night of celebration on June 21, line 1 of the tram is cut in two for 11 days, from June 13 to 24, forcing tram users to get off and reboard on the other side of the square. The city center is fortified by making Place Massena inaccessible. Twenty-three benches, each weighing two tons, are removed and their locations cemented. They are temporarily stored elsewhere to be reinstalled later, with the City of Nice refusing to disclose the cost of this maneuver.
Such decisions can only be made by people who use cars and not public transport, preferring their appearance on national television over the daily lives of the people of Nice.
Focusing the City’s financial efforts on a large concert because it is broadcast on television effectively reduces the fête’s spread to the other neighborhoods of the city. And if this televised concert is to be maintained for the undeniable publicity it brings to the City, it could be done without concentrating the event at Place Massena. The headliners, who often come for just one or two songs, could be spread out on different stages in various parts of the city, with the broadcast switching from one stage to another. This would prevent the city center from being saturated and allow fans to enjoy real concerts by their favorite artists.
Organizing a large free concert is a good thing and embodies the spirit of the fête initiated by Jack Lang. But the Fête de la Musique is much more than that. We all enjoy strolling through the streets of Nice, discovering small groups around every corner. Musical styles blend, far from the television format. Young musicians play in public, often for the first time. The Fête de la Musique is a celebration of all music, all musicians, and all music lovers.
Whether played daily by street artists or celebrated on June 21, music eludes the insatiable will of local authorities to control it. The Fête de la Musique, in Nice as elsewhere, must remain a popular event and leave room for the unexpected, for discovery, and for freedom.
David Nakache, Tous Citoyens
