This Tuesday evening, July 26, the 76th edition of the Festival d’Avignon will close its doors, after almost three weeks and 400 performances and meetings in 40 places. An edition marked by the departure of its director Olivier Py, but also by the return of the public, after two years of pandemic.
From our special correspondent in Avignon, Fanny Imbert,
” Thank you all, and long life to the Festival d’Avignon ! A few tears in his voice and a huge bouquet in his arms, Olivier Py, director of the Festival for nine years, bows out. After two years under the sign of the Covid, its last edition is that of a return of the public. ” The public was extremely present. They applauded shows in which young people were very present. There were standing rooms, radiant rooms, it was a bit like the Festival of great reunions, after these two difficult years. »
With 105,260 tickets sold for the 47 IN shows, the gauges have almost returned to the level of 2019, before the pandemic. It is the Portuguese Tiago Rodrigues who takes over. A director and playwright, he notably directed the prestigious Dona Maria II National Theater in Lisbon. Olivier Py does not forget to warn him, in the face of the many challenges that await him: ” The Festival has challenges, such as diversity or ecology. The Festival is economically fragile, more and more, inflation will impact it terribly, and that can bring it down. »
So, a fragile Festival, but which has just taken on new life, with the first foreign director at its helm. In the meantime, Olivier Py closed his last edition this evening with Miss Knife and her sisters. For the occasion, his queer cabaret alter ego is surrounded on stage by Angélique Kidjo and the Ukrainian musical theater group the Dakh Daughters, a way of showing Avignon’s solidarity with Ukraine.
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