In Toulouse or elsewhere, is there still room in town for rides?
The turpitudes of the Saint-Michel Festival in Toulouse would make the most courageous follower of roller coasters dizzy. This funfair, an institution that has gone through nearly six decades, left its historic cradle of Saint-Michel eleven years ago for the Zénith car park. A solution now excluded by the municipality, due to work in progress in the new neighborhood of the nearby Cartoucherie, and the “nuisances” produced for local residents.
And despite six months of work and the examination of 24 sites likely to serve as a base, accompanied since the end of the summer by a threat of blocking of the ring road by the showmen, it is only this Tuesday that common ground has been found. It will be the island of Ramier, rather central.
The showdown between the 90 fairground families who have planned to spend a month in the Pink City – by sending their children to school there – and the town hall will therefore have lasted for months. The Ile du Ramier was offered to the fairgrounds on September 2. But the failures exceeded the too late proposal to install a “party of 3 hectares in fifteen days on a site under construction where dump trucks all day”. “In a fairground, there is food, you need an electricity network, mains drainage, that’s why the Ramier proposal left us skeptical for this year”, explains Stéphane Dubief, door- voice of professionals and also general secretary of the Federation of Fairgrounds of France.
Between two evils…
But after the arrival of two other proposals on Monday, worse because off-centered in the industrial zone of Ginestous or in Malepère, the fairgrounds validated the solution on the wire of Ramier. “The town hall of Toulouse immediately mobilizes its technical services to prepare this site as appropriate, but within extremely tight deadlines. With the necessary goodwill of all, let us wish the success of this installation, ”indicates the Capitol on Tuesday evening.
This conflict in Toulouse illustrates a basic trend: the renovations of hypercentres are gradually pushing fairgrounds towards the outskirts of cities. In Strasbourg, the famous Foire Saint-Jean held its last edition at Wacken, the site located near the European Parliament, in full urban change. The municipality evokes for 2023 a move to a “festive esplanade”, located in a craft area. At Le Mans, the showmen had to leave the city center last year for the suburbs in a tense atmosphere. And in Mauguio, near Montpellier, the Luna Park in Carnon did not open this summer due to the construction of a car park and disagreements over a possible replacement site.
“Five to eight years for the public to regain their habits”
“We understand the transformation of urban spaces. There are cities where moves are made in consultation and in anticipation”, explains Stéphane Dubief, citing Perpignan for the dialogue or Grenoble during the works of the Esplanade, which hosts the historic Foire des Rameaux.
Especially since the relocation of a carnival, concerted or forced, is never trivial. “It generally takes five to eight years for the public to regain their habits, analyzes the specialist, who walks his shooting range throughout France. The carnival is not a large area, we come there with the family, sometimes on foot or we stop there while walking”. With its service by tram, the Toulouse solution of the Ile du Ramier does not have a lot of advantages.