Festivities of Bayonne: opening in the jubilation, under high security and paying

Bayonne – The Festival of Bayonne, one of the biggest popular events in Europe with a million party-goers expected until Sunday, were opened Wednesday around 22H00, as in recent years under high security, and with for the first time times a partially paid access.
  

As is the tradition, the holidays were opened from the balcony of the Town Hall, facing a human tide, with special guests including this year members of the France Women's Team. rugby, winner of the Grand Slam at the Six Nations Tournament 2018.

For five days and five nights, the Bayonne Festival, launched in 1932 (they were interrupted only from 1940 to 1944 during the Occupation) see succeed concerts, shows, gastronomic competitions, Basque pelota, Landes races, bullfights.

Small revolution, the access becomes this year partially paying, from Friday to Sunday because of a fixed price of 8 euros, for all the non-residents bayonnais. But Wednesday night, it was free, and thousands of " festayers " (revelers in Gascon language), dressed in red and white, held the traditional holiday, welcomed the opening under the balcony of the 'city Hall.

The sacrifice of the principle of free popular festivals, said Jean-Rene Etchegaray, the mayor (UDI) of Bayonne is the rising cost of security. On a budget of 2.9 million euros, security represents approximately 570,000 euros, up from 2017, without counting 555,000 euros of the new access filtering device.

The holidays, since the attack of Nice in 2016, remain under surveillance with between 800 and 1,000 civil servants, CRS, police, gendarmerie, army, deployed on the ground, and a perimeter of the Feasts (the downtown area) filtered through ten entry points where bags are searched.

After the Pentecost Holiday in Vic-Fezensac (Gers), the Bayonne Celebrations are the second major event in the Southwest to pay tribute to the festayres. The experience will be scrutinized by other municipalities such as Dax or Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) whose festivals also attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

This year, the municipality of Bayonne also mobilized particularly against badual violence by multiplying prevention centers, reception for victims, in the perimeter of the festivities and announcing that it will be a civil party " in the event that a badist badault committed during the Bayonne Feasts is the subject of a lawsuit ".