Stuck in the middle of April, when the sun timidly begins to peek out again, the Panoramas festival launched the long festival season in Brittany for twenty-five years. This year, the organizers have opted for the end of the season with a 26th edition which is being held until Sunday in Morlaix (Finistère). A change of date but also of location with all the concerts which will be grouped together in a single room, the Manufacture des tabacs, “for an even more beautiful and unifying celebration”, promise the organizers.
This was not originally their initial idea since the festival was also to take over, as usual, the Langolvas exhibition center for wild after-parties. But with pre-sales being sluggish, the Panoramas team decided on Tuesday to bring everyone together “à la Manu”, in the heart of the city center. A last minute change which in no way dampens the enthusiasm of the organizers. Firstly because the programming remains unchanged with all the artists scheduled for Langolvas who will be rescheduled. Above all, this materializes the change of direction that they wanted to bring about for this 2023 edition.
The challenge of “a festival on a human scale, smaller but more beautiful”
Against the grain of most festivals, launched in a frantic race towards gigantism, Panoramas has in fact decided to scale back by drastically lowering its gauge. “We reached 32,000 festival-goers in 2017 and we were around 25,000 last year,” underlines Eddy Pierres, director of the Wart association, which organizes the festival. This year, the gauge will be reduced by half. » A choice of decline assumed by the organizers who are betting on “a festival on a human scale, smaller but more beautiful. » “We could have continued to grow to have more resources but we did not want to be in this race for gigantism,” explains Eddy Pierre. We didn’t see any sense in it all and we were above all at the limits of what we wanted to do. »
Within the Panoramas team, this new shift is primarily due to environmental issues. “A compelling need to rethink a model more in line with our times and our values,” she said in October. To reduce its carbon footprint, the Breton festival therefore chose to go smaller but also opted for more local programming. Fewer big headliners and foreign artists in short and therefore fewer long trips to have to manage “We are not saying that there will be no more but there will be fewer,” warns Eddy Pierre. We will dig deeper into the emerging electro and hip-hop scene which is already very rich. »
The cultural sector invited to decarbonize
The change in model and scale decided by the organizers of Panoramas is also due to financial considerations, with the festival losing money since 2018. A financial fragility which is, however, not specific to Panoramas. “Even the big festivals can no longer be profitable,” underlines David Irle.
Independent consultant on energy and climate issues for the cultural sector, the latter threw a wrench in the pond at the end of 2021 with a report entitled “Let’s decarbonize culture” in which he called for a global reconsideration. “All the indicators suggest that this model of major festivals is running out of steam,” he says. First of all, from an economic point of view, with artists’ fees soaring. » A dangerous speculative bubble according to him for festivals, also increasingly weakened by climatic hazards.
Faced with all its challenges, both economic and environmental, the survival of many festivals therefore requires decline for David Irle. “This will be simpler for intermediate-sized festivals,” he warns. But each festival will be led to question its model. And reducing the size of a festival should not be seen as a failure! »