The Bay Festival has cancelled its first Corsica edition, which was due to take place from July 24th through 26th.
In a Facebook post, organizers say they called off the festival after two potential sites fell through. They say that, despite getting the all-clear to host the event in Solaro back in February, local mayor Jean-Baptiste Paoli banned the original festival site on July 8th. Then, a few days after finding an alternative location with the help of local authorities, the deal collapsed, leaving organizers with no location for a second time one week before the festival was due to start.
The Haute-Corse Prefect explained in an official statement that documents provided by organizers were incomplete and both sites were "inappropriate for hosting a large-scale event." The local administration also urged attendees not to hold unauthorized gatherings in response to a series of events that appeared on Facebook following the cancellation.
The Bay Festival, which was originally held in Nice, was set to take place in Corsica for the first time in 2015. A cast of international acts, including John Talabot, Nina Kraviz, Robert Hood and Jeff Mills, had been locked in. Some of them might play at local clubs instead, though nothing has been confirmed yet. Accommodation alternatives for attendees supposed to stay at the festival's campsite remain TBA.
We spoke to one of the festival organizers, Romain D-F., to discuss the cancellation:On the message you posted on Facebook, you said you had everything signed off for the festival. What happened?
We had authorisation and we were working hard to set up the festival site. Then, early early last week, the local authorities told us to move to a new site they'd chosen themselves if we wanted to make the festival happen. After that, we heard on the radio that the authorities had changed their minds again and we received an email telling us that the festival couldn't happen on this site.
Why did the local authorities cancel the event?
There is no reason, we moved to the new site ten days before the festival was due to start, They were saying our original site was dangerous and the new one provided "all the facilities to ensure a secure festival." Then on the radio, they called us "ravers" and were saying the festival would bring drugs to the island. We're not the first festival to be killed by the authorities, and we're not the first young people in France to be kicked by our government.
How many people were you expecting? Will they be reimbursed?
We were expecting 5000 people per day. We read that it could have been more than what the authorities allowed us, which is wrong. We had 80 security guards, 50 lifeguards and an area that could have hosted 5000 people easily. Regarding the reimbursement, we'll contact everyone soon.
What are you going to do next?
We need to handle all the cancellation issues, it's months of work. I'd like to thank my team, the volunteers and of course the people we were expecting next week. We're disappointed, we've worked for a whole year on this project and we were ready.