Many music lovers are disappointed this Saturday night. The site of the We Love Green festival, in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, was evacuated due to violent storms hitting the capital and its region. Festival concerts were canceled for the evening and nearly 40,000 people were asked to leave.
“Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, we have to cancel the festival tonight. Calmly head for the exit,” a tweet from the organization read. “See you tomorrow (Editor’s note, Sunday)”, added the organizers.
According to one of our journalists on site, we have rarely seen such a deluge and an underwater festival at this point. It rained non-stop for two hours on Saturday followingnoon. “The conditions are not pleasant either for the public or for the artists”, announced a speaker on stage earlier. The first claps of thunder sounded at 6 p.m. during the SCH concert. If the spectators were soaked, according to our information, the dressing rooms of the artists were also under water, many of them ending up flooded.
“We were evacuated from the lodges because they feared that the storm would hit the metal structure too violently”, told us Thomas Mars, from the group Phoenix, who received us for a few minutes near his tour bus around 8:30 p.m., then that the rain had stopped. Disappointed, of course. “We are sorry for everyone, organizers, artists and festival-goers, but the most important thing is that everyone is safe. »
Tickets refunded
Tickets for the concerts of the day will be reimbursed by the organization. The two and three day passes remain valid for the day of Sunday, specify the organizers. “A new violent storm is forecast from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Afterwards, it will be fine and we will seal the site with bark and straw, explains to the Parisian Marie Sabot, the director of the festival. The 3rd day is therefore maintained. According to the forecast, there will be only light showers between 4 and 6 p.m. Finally, we hope that this will not change…”
The environmentally conscious festival reopened its doors Thursday at the Bois de Vincennes, following two editions canceled due to health crisis (2020 and 2021). Thursday’s opening night was marked by a concert by Gorillaz, one of Briton Damon Albarn’s bands.
The Versailles of Phoenix and the rapper SCH were scheduled for Saturday. The other headliners of the event are Angèle, PNL, Juliette Armanet, expected on Sunday. We Love Green welcomed a total of 80,000 people in 2019 during its last edition.
