Place de la République, employees of night bars create an association to make themselves heard
This Saturday, December 10, the employees of the night bars came together to create an association under the 1901 law in order to “defend their interests and those of Dijon life”. Since this weekend, these establishments must close at two in the morning instead of five.
This Saturday evening, revelers will only have until two in the morning to go out dancing in Dijon. Since December 6, a prefectural decree has imposed on the night bars of the Place de la République a closing time of two hours instead of five until now, except for the Baltazar, which has the official status of a nightclub. In response, this afternoon, several employees of the establishments concerned (the Beverly, the Smart, the Jamaica, the Belle Époque and the Salsapelpa as well as the Baltazar) met to follow up on their movement and show their disagreement with the prefectural measure.
We were talking to you yesterday about this collective “So that the party is not over”. Soon, this collective will be structured as an association under the 1901 law, explains Maxime Chène, artistic director of Beverly and one of the association’s spokespersons. “We want to defend our future, because we are all threatened. Eventually, we could be made redundant, establishments could close.”
The latter recounts the strange atmosphere of the beginning of the weekend. “Open Thursday and Friday until two o’clock. What we have seen is an 80% drop in our turnover! Because people tend to go out dancing around half past midnight, and now closes only an hour and a half later.”
As for the reactions of partygoers forced to leave at two in the morning: “people are disgusted, they say it’s not normal, that the prefect should review his decisions“.
“Covid has already hurt the nightlife, and barely a year later, we are still being deprived again. Young people don’t take advantage of it, it’s complicated for them.”
As a reminder, the early closure was decided following security problems at Place de la République, after several violent attacks. The owners of night bars have already made it known that they consider this measure inconsistent; the employees of the collective say the same thing. “The problems at Place de la République do not come from our establishments. Undesirable people, they do not enter our establishments, they rob our customers when they leave! The problem is not the schedule, there is violence all day. So people always get mugged, two or five“, regrets Maxime Chène.
In addition, the spokesperson for the collective believes that this risks creating another problem. “People want to party anyway, so they told us that they will go in the evening to apartments, airbnbs, party rooms, where there will be no hours or security. We must not forget that in our establishments, we are safe, we have officers who know how to manage alcohol, drugs and fights. All of this will create public disorder.“Maxime Chène also fears that the people of Dijon will go to nightclubs further away, such as in Châlon, Besançon or Beaune.”Maybe at first they’ll take a Sam, or maybe they’ll hit the road drunk.”
► READ ALSO : INTERVIEW. Place de la République in Dijon: why will night bars have to close at 2 a.m.? The prefect justifies himself
The collective intends to send a letter to the prefect, on behalf of the association, at the beginning of the week, to ask him for an interview. “If he does not want to receive us, we will carry out a peaceful protest action in 2023.” Maxime Chène is also trying to publicize the case of Dijon on a national scale: the collective has planned to go to the studios of Do not touch My TV !Cyril Hanouna’s show, to try to get on the air.
For his part, the prefect of Côte-d’Or has made an appointment in six months to re-examine the possibility of reopening the dance bars at five o’clock. Regarding the possible job losses linked to the decline in turnover, Franck Robine assured, in mid-November, that the problem would be taken care of. “The departmental head of Pôle Emploi will set up a specific cell if there were to be layoffs – which I do not believe“, estimates the prefect. This is not the opinion of the employees of the collective. “I don’t know if in a month, I will still be in office“, worries Maxime Chène.