Historical reenactors demonstrate in costume in Avignon against restrictions linked to the coronavirus epidemic. – NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
Vikings, knights, pirates or serfs … Some 400 people, enthusiasts or professionals of historical reenactments, marched on Saturday in the streets of Avignon to alert on the difficulties encountered by the sector because of health constraints due to Covid-19.
“Let’s go kick the English variant out of France,” “Sire! We have big! “,” Witches, I’m supposed to die at the stake, not starve “,” Living history is us, don’t let ourselves starve “,” Culture is not limited to opera “: On their placards, the demonstrators displayed their dismay and their concerns in the streets of downtown Avignon, noted AFP journalists.
“They are all in agony, they are dying”
“Many associations are breaking down, people who lived thanks to these events are dying, we cannot accept that. In the historical reconstruction, we never do a demonstration like that, but here we launch a cry of distress, “Patrick Duval, municipal councilor of Morières-lès-Avignon and organizer of the medieval Rose festival, told AFP. ‘Gold.
“They are all in agony, they are dying. The troops are being completely dissolved because they can no longer offer their members outings or parties, the small artisans who follow us on all our medieval festivals, on all the markets are literally in agony, they are closing down one after the other and things are going very badly because they no longer have the right to anything, the intermittents of the show have been promised a blank year but there are a lot of them who do not fit in the boxes, ”he lamented.
“Today it’s been over a year that we can no longer exercise our profession, that we can no longer live […] It is important that we are all here today, and that we make our voices heard, that our governments, that our government finally understand that it is slowly killing us there, ”said Isabelle Corci, leader of a falconer company in Alès. Arrived in front of the Palais des Papes after parading through the historic city center, the demonstrators all stretched out on the ground to fake their deaths, AFP journalists noted.