the long-awaited resumption of standing concerts at 106
At 106 in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), as in other contemporary music halls, the announcement of the end of the gauges and the return, in February, of concerts with the public standing is good news. But between canceled concerts and a succession of health measures, it will take time to regain the confidence of spectators and a return to normal.
The live performance sector has suffered a lot from the Covid. In the field of music, deprived of concerts, artists had taken to video to regain contact with the public, even performing live on social networks, while waiting to be able to go back on stage.
On the side of the theaters, the period was also difficult. Example in Rouen with Le 106 whose director summarizes the situation in one sentence: “Since March 2020, we have only been able to practice our profession for 4 months (and with health constraints): from September to December 2021.”
So the announcement, on January 20, 2022, by the Prime Minister, of the end of the gauges for seated concerts (February 2) and the resumption of standing concerts (from February 16) suggests a return to normal.
Not so simple, tempers Jean-Christophe Aplincourt, director and programmer of “106” in Rouen. As he explained to our journalist Stéphanie Letournel, the ban on standing concerts, which took place on December 27, 2021, had the effect of a mass blow:
“This ban has once again sown doubt in the minds of our public, and undermined all the confidence that we had managed to rebuild since September, and when all the spectators had not yet returned. This news wave of bans has put us back in this situation of doubt, that is to say that we have not been selling tickets since that date, since December 27! So it will take time to convince our public, to that he is considered to be credible, reliable…”
“The question of standing concerts is essential, it is one of the characteristics of current music”
Jean-Christophe Aplincourt, director and programmer of “106” in Rouen
In addition to the constraints imposed on the organization of concerts, there are cancellations. And the ban on standing concerts is one of the causes. Thus, at 106 Rouen there are only two concerts scheduled for this month of January. A situation experienced with great difficulty by the 106 team, as Jean-Christophe Aplincourt confides:
“We have been really in difficulty. Currently, it is the shadow of 106, it is not at all what we normally do. We are happy with the notice of reopening from February 16, but we would have liked it to have been before because we find that there is not really a justification, to differentiate so much between standing shows and seated shows. We are both happy to have a horizon, but we would have liked that it was closer.”
Setting up a program and bringing the public back is therefore not easy. Especially when you have to postpone or cancel and be in uncertainty every day. What the director of 106 confirms:
“Currently, there are three cancellation factors: musicians may be sick; because circulation in Europe is very disrupted for all international artists, and the third factor is this criterion for the ban on standing concerts , one of the primordial characteristics of contemporary music.”
Thus, the concert of Benjamin Biolay, which was sold out (in reservation) was canceled because it had to be done in seats and therefore divide the audience by 2 or 3.But the artist did not have the availability to do two or three concerts rather than one. And given his schedule, the concert has been definitively canceled, lost, and Benjamin Biolay will only return to 106 in two or three years, after a new album”. explains, disappointed, Jean-Christophe Aplincourt.
Programming artists, and especially those who tour internationally, is therefore becoming more and more difficult, and faced with this headache, some professionals (producers, tourers and managers) are considering rethinking the terms of concerts with a more flexible, leave to avoid dates in winter…