Thursday evening, the metropolis of Montpellier (Hérault) planned an impossible party, to accompany the launch of free transport. Because yes, from 7 p.m., residents of the area will no longer have to pay anything to take the tram and buses (but not the others, who will have to continue to skimp). From noon to midnight, to celebrate, it is planned that artists of all kinds will take over the buses and the tram, and from 7 p.m. to midnight, that “the Place de la Comédie will be transformed into a dancefloor”. Just that. So, if you want to party under the stars on Thursday evening, with a down jacket and a scarf, 20 minutes tells you everything about the program for this historic fiesta.
Whispered poems and giant moles on the tram
Don’t panic, it is not excluded that strange people get on the tram on Thursday in Montpellier. Yes, I know, some of you, especially the regulars on line 1, are used to it. But from noon to midnight, Thursday, on the occasion of the Zat (Temporary artistic zone) organized to celebrate the launch of free transport, artistic performances will be organized in the tram, in buses, and on docks.
“The Zat will interfere in trams and buses, install itself in stations, meet travelers, to create surprise and bring out the extraordinary at the heart of everyday urban life,” explains Pascal Le Brun-Cordier , the artistic director of the event. Artists will whisper poems into the ears of travelers, performers dressed in inflatable costumes will try to make their way into the trains of line 2 and giant moles will invade line 4. And that’s only a quarter of the half delightful strangenesses planned for Thursday, all day, in transport.
An open stage on the Place de la Comédie
From noon to midnight, Thursday, a microphone will be placed on the Place de la Comédie, the nerve center of the festival. All those who wish are invited to position themselves in front of it, and to describe what they see, “what is happening, the ordinary life of the place, its “infra-ordinary” life”, we can read in the Zat program. This astonishing participatory performance is inspired by a funny idea from the writer Georges Perec who, in 1978, described, at the microphone of France Culture, everything he saw, while he was stationed at a Parisian intersection. Be inspired, because an illustrated book will be published next year, by the Montpellier editions Six Pieds Sous Terre, to tell what was said at this microphone.
Come on, one last jubilant oddity planned as part of this Zat: in a bus parked opposite Boulevard Victor-Hugo, then on the square in front of the Opera, the Montpellier composer Jérôme Hoffmann suggests closing our eyes and listening to a piece , entirely made… of sounds captured in buses and on the tram. Had to think about it.
A dance floor like no other
At 7 p.m. sharp on Thursday, a chime of gongs will ring out on the Place de la Comédie, to mark once and for all the launch of free transport. Solidarity Mixers, a collective of committed DJs well known to Montpellier residents, will then take the decks for the entire evening, in the open air. We will also have an eyeful, with the projection of an… aurora borealis, in the Montpellier sky, by the Swiss artist and activist Dan Acher. Note, for those who prefer bell bottoms and collars, a 1970s party is planned in a line 2 tram, which will be parked near the station, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. hours.
The entire program of the festivities is by here.