Everything except a new “fairground potato” this weekend, for the last days of the Foire du Trône in 2024. On April 15, a violent fight took place between fairgrounds and a gang of young people on the site in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. Filmed, this violent altercation was broadcast on several social networks.
Images of violence which are, unfortunately, not the only ones to have circulated in recent weeks around the event. Posts on TikTok or Snapchat revealing incidents have multiplied, as have comments now deeming this popular festival unattendable. “Circus”, “zoo”, “lawless zone”, there is no shortage of qualifiers for Internet users who are increasingly revealing their reluctance to go to the Reuilly lawn. For this last weekend of the 2024 edition, authorities and fairgrounds alike are hoping for two more peaceful days.
Succession of incidents relayed on social networks
Already on April 6, fights and thefts were relayed on the networks. A famous Tiktoker, Willy_à_la_Prod, called on his subscribers to go there to “celebrate the good weather”. Crowd movements were noted as well as pickpocketing. Attacked by several people present on site, the influencer will meet again with his attackers the following week.
And again the weekend of April 13 and 14 with images of scuffles and the intervention of Brav-M police officers within the fair itself to arrest several individuals. In videos available on the Internet, we see police officers threatened by groups of young people while they exfiltrate the arrested, forcing them to use tear gas. It was also this same weekend that the famous “fairground potato” altercation took place.
Five arrests since March 22
Contacted by 20 minutes, the police headquarters confirms several interventions on site. Regarding April 13, the PP adds that individuals tried to force their way into the grounds of the Foire du Trône, causing crowd movements but assures that the intervention of the police made it possible to “quickly return to good physiognomy without other incidents or injuries.”
Not without listing five arrests since the start of the fair on March 22. Two for threatening police officers with an imitation weapon, one for telephone theft committed earlier in the day in Val-d’Oise and two others for outrage and rebellion.
“The level of tension is not higher than in other years”
Despite this, the PP is rather reassuring by recalling that “dynamic and persuasive” motorized and pedestrian patrols were permanently mobilized around the event. The interior of the fair is under the jurisdiction of the municipal police.
According to the Paris town hall interviewed by 20 minutes, 40 municipal police and mediation agents and 30 private security agents are mobilized every day to ensure security around the site and inside. The office of Nicolas Nordman, Anne Hidalgo’s deputy in charge of security, even specifies: “Contrary to what we hear, the level of tension is not higher than in other years. In 2024, as in past years, there were some tensions between groups but which remained contained by the mobilized teams. »
What the police figures seem to confirm. With 98 interventions in 2024 two days before the end, compared to 212 in 2023 and 240 in 2022 (but with one month less), there is no escalation in delinquency according to the prefecture which rather highlights the impact of social networks which give “high visibility” to incidents and deplores “the massive dissemination of these images taken out of context, which harms the activity of fairground workers”.
The fairgrounds fear for the image of the fair
And it’s not Karl Vancraeyenest who will say the opposite. Owner of the ride, “Le King”, he is also vice-president of the Foire du Trône. In turn, he regrets the use and misappropriation of images to harm the party: “Frankly, look at what’s happening, it feels like a civil war. Do you really believe that if it happened in reality like this, the Throne Fair would still exist? »
According to him, the blame is mainly to be placed on applications like TikTok and their influencers: “This is the perverse side of the networks, the race for bad testimony. Young people are taking advantage of the popularity of the fair, which has always been very attractive. »
It can range from Willy_la_prod, “who managed to make people believe that it was he who succeeded in filling the fair, when it was just a normal day of good weather”, to those who try to “make the buzz” while stealing candy apples. “When it’s a guy who has thousands of followers, it’s problematic because it becomes a game of reproduction to get people talking about yourself,” explains the showman who has been participating in the event for more than fifty years.
According to him, who was “born at the Foire du Trône”, the event is no more dangerous today than in previous years. “Nothing to do with the end of the 1990s” when gangs of young people met there to fight it out. Since then, the Paris town hall, the police headquarters and the fairground workers have worked together to fence off the site, install video surveillance and filter the entries. “There are national police outside, private security at the entrances and municipal police inside. This is how we rediscovered the original conviviality and refined the image of the fair,” explains Karl Vancraeyenest. But the showman does not hide a hint of concern about the evolution of young people’s “virtual” practices. “By inventing false incidents, they will end up provoking them. »