Uncertainty Surrounds the Future of Paris’ Foire du Trône due to 2024 Olympic Games

If the event still has the possibility of being maintained, it will however have to be reduced to one month instead of two. An insufficient duration to be profitable, believe the fairgrounds.

Will the traditional Foire du Trône come to Paris in 2024? The event which takes place in the spring on the lawn of Reuilly, in the 12th arrondissement, is threatened by the holding of the Olympic Games next year.

At issue: the Reuilly lawn must be used for the installation of a temporary accommodation camp to accommodate 5,000 soldiers, mobilized for the Olympics.

If the Foire du Trône has not been completely canceled, it will however have to be reduced to one month instead of the usual two, and brought forward to mid-March (while the fair began on March 31 this year), learned the fairgrounds by a letter sent in mid-September by the interministerial Games delegation.

“We take away half of what you earn”

For the fairgrounds, the event as planned would not be profitable enough in a single month of opening, and they are even hesitant to maintain the fair.

“We’re taking away half of what you earn, you understand that people don’t like that,” declares David Cohen, fairground and president of the association for the defense of the Foire du Trône, at the microphone of BFM Paris Île- of France. “We are here to earn our living, we are not there just to entertain the public.”

The fairground details the installation and operating costs of the fair, to which are added the salaries of employees and the costs linked to the promotion of the event, costs difficult to cover in a single month of opening. “It’s a lot of turnover that is going away. With these costs, it can’t go,” laments the showman.

The fairgrounds are demanding at a minimum to be able to extend the fair until May 8 in order to ensure profitability. They also denounce a lack of dialogue and consultation with the organizers. Especially since this is not the only event of this kind that will be disrupted through competition: the Fête des Tuileries will have to move to the Porte de la Muette side to make room for the events at the Place de la Concorde.

Festivals must also adapt

Another fear linked to the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris was that of seeing the traditional summer festivals cancelled. Those planned before mid-July should however be maintained. Rock en Seine, We Love Green and even the Solidays should therefore take place, provided that the mobilization of the police, who must remain available within the framework of the Olympic Games, is limited.

However, doubt remains over the holding of the Lollapalooza festival, which generally takes place at the end of July.

Certain Parisian concert halls will also not be able to accommodate artists for several months, like the Stade de France or the Accor Arena which will become competition sites to host athletics, gymnastics or even gymnastics events. of basket ball.

Thus, the tour of the British group Coldplay will not pass through the capital next year, but will instead perform for three dates at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon.