For nearly 150 years, this was the stronghold of Rennes railway workers. “A city within a city which had up to 1,500 employees in the 1930s”, according to Katayoune Panahi, director of SNCF Immobilier. Along the railway tracks and in the immediate vicinity of Rennes station, the former Pierre-Martin industrial technicentre, built in 1872, turned the page on railways in 2015 with the relocation of activities to a more modern site in Saint-Jacques- of-the-Lande. Abandoned, this vast industrial wasteland of seven hectares is now the property of the city. While land is scarce, the latter wishes to make it an extension of the EuroRennes district by building housing and offices there. But also “a district of creative and cultural industries, a place of surprises and astonishment”, indicates the mayor Nathalie Appéré.
The first stone of this still somewhat vague project will be laid this Thursday with the opening of the Grand Huit (read framed). A new “family and festive” place whose management has been entrusted to Régis Masclet. This fairground arts enthusiast is well known in the Breton capital, where he has been delighting young and old for many years with his carousels and old rides installed in Place Sainte-Anne or in the galleries of the Alma and Grand shopping centers. Neighborhood.
“Not a fairground or a museum either”
An inveterate collector, this former advertiser owns around forty of them that they store in hangars while waiting to put them back into service. Looking for a place to exhibit them, “Monsieur Manège” succeeded in convincing elected officials with this project for a place dedicated to the world of fairground arts. “It won’t be a carnival or a museum either,” he promises. Rather a journey towards a heritage, a kind of conservatory which will retrace one hundred years of fairground arts history with rides and a whole host of objects. »
An ambitious project, Le Grand Huit will be set up in four large halls formerly used for the repair and maintenance of trains. They will serve as a place of exhibition for the carousels and festive decorations of the Masclet family but also as a place of repair and training for craftsmen or artists. Without forgetting Hall 1 which will serve as a restaurant in a festive atmosphere mixing cabaret and bistro from another time.
But before seeing Le Grand Huit running at full speed, we will have to be patient with the work lasting several months on the program. This opening in July will therefore serve as an appetizer before other occasional openings also planned during the All Saints holidays and the month of December.
An opening for Les Tombées de la Nuit
A street arts festival established in Rennes since 1980, Les Tombées de la Nuit will take place from July 6 to 9 on the Grand Huit site with a musical program in the evening. This place dedicated to the world of fairground arts will also remain open until July 30. Children and adults will be able to enjoy the flying chair merry-go-round, a small train on rails, a mechanical organ and a dance floor outside.