Near Toulouse. Will the Lantern Festival be impacted by the new sanitary measures?
Through Thibaut Calatayud
Published on
It’s official. From Monday January 3, 2022, and for a minimum of three weeks, major events will again be subject to gauges. Count 2,000 people maximum indoors and 5,000 outdoors.
Announcements made by Jean Castex, Monday December 27, 2021, which directly concern one of the major events of winter in the Toulouse area: the Blagnac Lantern Festival.
The organizers are not worried
According to Patrice Gausserand, president of Mag Conseil and representative of the Zigong lanterns cultural industries business group (the consortium that owns the festival), the government announcements will not necessarily cause profound changes in the organization of the event.
“We watch these announcements. We are not being smart! But for the moment, this gauge, we have already respected it since the opening.”
No worries for the moment since, according to him, since the opening of the festival, the 1uh Last December, the 5,000 visitors mark (at the same time in the Ritouret park) was only exceeded three times. “We went up to 5,400 people,” he told Toulouse news.
“The gauge is no more worrying than that”
While the situation is likely to deteriorate even more with the arrival of Omicron variant, should we fear even more restrictive measures for the Lantern Festival?
” We will see. I cannot predict the future. At the moment, that 5,000 gauge is no more of a concern than that. We will continue to receive the public normally ”, assures the former mayor of Gaillac (Tarn), town which hosted the previous editions of the festival.
More than 250,000 seats already sold
Open from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., the Ritouret park welcomes an average of 12,000 festival-goers per evening. “The visitors who go out can be replaced by others so for us, the gauge is not very troublesome”, repeats Patrice Gausserand.
While it is still early to know if the announcements will have a real economic impact on the Lantern Festival, the president of Mag Conseil is delighted with the success of the event with more than 250,000 seats sold since 1uh December.
Lantern Festival
Blagnac Ritouret Park
Open from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. until February 1, 2022
Tickets available on the event website.
Has this article been useful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Toulouse in the Mon Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.