Do you know a lot about festivals that last ten non-stop days? In Lorient, it’s like that for ages. And if 2024 experienced a shortened edition due to Olympic Games in France, the Interceltic festival this year returned to its traditional outfit: ten busy days, two weekends included.
There are those who take advantage of only one or two days and those who live the festival in its entirety. This represents a good number of people between volunteers, musicians and festival-goers fans of this meeting.
Are they exhausted on this last weekend? “I am not at all tired,” says Bleuen le Quintrec, 27 years old. Every evening, the young woman sails between the Quai de la Bretagne and the Polig-Monjarret place according to the groups and the meetings she makes. “I rarely go to bed before 4 a.m., I sleep until noon, rest in the afternoon and left!” “Better, three times since the start of the festival, she went to jogs” to evacuate toxins “. This is the second year that Bleuen is making the festival in its entirety. “That’s what’s great on the thread!” Everyone binds, you easily meet and they are people that you then see physically outside the event. »»
Team spirit
Not all festival -goers are lucky to be able to be the morning. “Me, my trick is to have a completely off -off day during the festival,” says this volunteer. And I discipline myself with alcohol. »»
I rarely go to bed before 4 a.m., I sleep until noon, rest in the afternoon and I left!
“We opened the concerts almost every morning on the place of the Celtic countries,” says Bertand Le Cam, a bombard player in the Sonerian bagad an Oriant. At 61, and a few dozen wire on the clock, he advances to be able to manage himself thanks to “experience. This Friday I had no voice, I returned at 10 p.m. But on average, I leave the festival around 1 hour. We say to ourselves all the time that we are going to come back early, then we meet someone, we drink a drink or two, we fascinate, then other acquaintances arrive. Time spins at full speed every night. »»
The Lorient bagad accumulates the performances during the festival, which requires a certain discipline. “This year, we had to perform twelve times. And without counting the preparation upstream of the festival. Fifteen days before, we intensify rehearsals. The team spirit and the pleasure of a player make us hold on. To recover after the thread, Matthieu Deloffre, the president of Sonerien An Oriant, believes that he will need two weeks.
“Huge spleen after”
Same thing for Yannick Mainville, the head of the Acadian delegation who is in the spotlight this year. “I sleep 5 hours per night, that’s the minimum. Otherwise I am not well the next day, ”he says. This joyful guy has under his responsibility the artists who cross the Atlantic to come and play. He must also manage the American cousins pavilion.
With the jet lag, it’s hard the first nights because we don’t want to sleep at all
“With the jet lag, it’s hard the first nights because we don’t want to sleep at all. I force the artists to go and rest! His technique: “focus”, as he says with his acadian acadian acado in New Brunswick. Understand: focus only on the festival and think of nothing else.
“What is certain is that we will have a huge spleen on Monday after an event of such intensity,” smiles Matthieu Deloffre. Bleuen The Quintrec, she will agree four days of rest after the festival before … set out again on another. Long live youth!
