They are all looking forward to it… This Tuesday, several volunteers are busy continuing to build their float, less than three weeks from the Nantes carnival. Some still cut polystyrene, others do welding, painting or electricity. Despite the last two editions being cancelled, the floats are not yet ready to parade on April 3. “The workshop closed from March 2020 to September 2021. It was then necessary to remobilize the volunteers, to get back into the habit of coming back regularly… It took time”, says Stéphanie Mercier, in charge of the administration of the nemo association, which organizes the carnival of Nantes. In the large workshop where the tanks and the big heads are housed, on the road to Sainte-Luce-sur-Loire north-east of Nantes, the handymen assure that the atmosphere is no longer “the same as before the health crisis” .
The theme initially chosen for 2020, humour, was kept “because the construction of the tanks had already started”. But, after more than two years working on the same edition, a “weariness” has settled in the warehouse. “We are tired of always looking at the same tanks. We say to ourselves that it has to come out and then we talk about it more. It is high time to move on to something else”, breathes Serge Belaud, a reveler “for ages”. Jacques Sauderais, a volunteer with about twenty tanks to his credit, joined him. “We’re going to think of a new theme fairly quickly so as to get off to a better start because we’re really tired of it,” he says. Some volunteers have even abandoned the revelers to devote themselves to other activities.
Knowledge sharing
The tanks imagined in 2019 have sometimes undergone some adjustments since the health crisis. On that of the Sud Loire Carnaval association, entitled “Les Tamalous du Dr Bobola”, the revelers added a few variants of Covid-19 at the last moment. “We all made them a flag based on where they came from. It wasn’t planned but it’s funnier that way,” laughs Serge Belaud. These DIY enthusiasts keep smiling. Objective: finish in the nails! Even if some tease each other about the progress of their tank, they do not hesitate to help each other by sharing their manual skills.
This is the case of Paul Bellini, says Paulo, a former volunteer electrician at the magazine La Cloche, in Nantes. “I love the shows. I often lend a hand with the installation of lights,” he says. Jacques Sauderais was a painter-decorator at theOpera of Nantes and Angers. “I don’t know how to weld so my colleagues weld me and I in exchange sculpt a head, hands, etc. “, he explains. For his part, Loïc has not yet had the opportunity to parade on a float. After being trained at the Beaux-Arts, he worked “all his life in the graphic arts” before joining the revelers group in 2019. “It’s going to be my baptism of fire on April 3, normally it’s off to a good start this year,” he rejoices. “There are things that I didn’t know how to do before coming here and that I’m starting to learn like mechanics. It’s a good occupation when you’re retired,” he smiles.
Second carnival of France
In total, 170 revelers are dedicated to the construction of floats and big heads. They are then joined by 400 dancers and musicians on parade days. the Nantes carnival is considered the second largest in France in terms of attendance, after Nice. Its particularity is that it is completely free and financed by the city. After each edition, part of the floats is destroyed, the other is sometimes sold or rented to festival committees.
To admire the show, meet on Sunday April 3 for the daytime carnival, April 6 for the children’s ball and April 9 for the night parade. Several volunteers assure that they will swarm until the eve of D-Day. towards his comrades. Some even already have creative ideas for next year, but that “must not be said”.