Several dozen people, opposed to a concert by the American artist Kali Malone in a church in Carnac (Morbihan), prevented holding the show SATURDAY. According to the organizers and the mayor, the demonstrators had the “profile of the Catholic extreme right”. “One of my assistants took a slap from one of the few young women who were in attendance,” lamented the mayor of Carnac, Olivier Lepick, indicating that he was going to file a complaint on Sunday.
The elected official explains that he “arrived on the spot following a call from the gendarmerie” and found that around forty demonstrators “occupied the forecourt of the church and prevented people (…) from returning”. These demonstrators were “fairly young, between 25 and 35 years old” and had the “profile of the Catholic extreme right”, he indicated, specifying that “none is from Carnac, none is from parish”.
“Following a demonstration by a far-right fundamentalist Catholic movement (activists from outside the parish of Carnac) involving around twenty individuals (…), Kali Malone’s concert was canceled”, lamented the organizers in a communicated. It was one of the concerts of the “You Origin” festival which takes place “in the middle of the menhirs but also in the Saint-Cornély church and the chapel of Kergroix”.
“Sad to give in to this type of intimidation”
“The mayor of Saint-Brevin has just resigned, I would not say that it is our daily life, but this kind of demonstrations, of aggressiveness on elected officials is more and more significant”, regretted Olivier Lepick explaining to have been “ particularly sad to give in to this type of intimidation”. “Following a call with Father Dominique, who is the assignee of the church, we decided to cancel the concert around 11 p.m., because no cultural event is worth the violence that these young people were ready to use” , he detailed.
“There weren’t a lot of gendarmes and not a lot of police, so it was a bit complicated,” he added, adding that the artist’s first concert went off without a hitch on Friday in the church. On his arrival on the spot, Olivier Lepick indicates that the representative of the demonstrators had explained to him “that he was against the fact that we play electronic music in the church”. The elected then replied “that the bishopric, the parish committee, our priest, everyone had validated this contract and that it was in no way a desecration or a lack of respect for the faith”.