2023-07-31 07:47:00
With his cowboy hat and big mustache, Frédéric Bastien does not go unnoticed around the Grand Ring. It’s been fifteen years since he swapped his microphone as a radio man for that of a commentator on the shows during the Libramont Fair. The Fair, he first discovered it as a journalist for Bel RTL, a radio station where he spent almost his entire career as a journalist and presenter until his retirement last month.
“In 2000, I had carried out a series of reports on farms which sought to diversify after the mad cow crisis, it was the beginning of rural lodgings and I found myself in Libramont to launch subjects” remembers -he.
For several years, Bel RTL then had a studio directly at the Fair for the presentation of live broadcasts. Frédéric Bastien made his contacts there.
A flagship presenter from Bel RTL left the radio after 30 years of service this Sunday, June 25, 2023
“The Libramont Fair team is a big family, he continues. I am a horse enthusiast. The Fair asked me to comment on the Grand Ring program and I accepted.”
“Reflexes of a journalist”
The opportunity to go green while taking leave from the radio station which employed him for several days.
“But keeping my journalistic reflexes, emphasizes the man who presented the first news flash on Bel RTL when the station was launched in 1991. Warming up the public by asking them to stand up or clap their hands is not not really my thing. On the other hand, I make sure that the spectators learn something. I have a conduct with the program. I distill bits of information as I go or ask questions.”
But the job is a bit different regarding the working conditions.
“In a radio studio, the journalist or the host is not facing the listeners and benefits from sound feedback, explains Frédéric Bastien. On the Grand Ring, you have to adapt because we are outdoors. I watch the reactions. I also remember an edition where it was cold. Even the locals had put on a big jacket.”
“Everyone has merit”
In the front row, the commentator of the Grand Ring is therefore also the first spectator. “I am only a link, he insists. There is the management team, the people bringing the animals, the workers… is still a spectacle. And everyone has merit. Whether it’s the pros presenting an orchestrated choreography or the teenager showing up with stage fright for the first time. Or even young people who braved the rain like this year, on the first day of Fair.”
Sometimes visitors, recognizing him, also accost Frédéric Bastien in the aisles. “With the arrival of cameras in radio studios, our faces are also known and it must be said that I have a particular look, smiles the man with the mustache. But people are benevolent because they are happy to tell you let them listen to you on the radio.”
This Monday, Frédéric Bastien will once again comment on the horse-drawn competition, an event that traditionally closes the Libramont Fair.
“Horse traction is a particular universe because it is not a show but a real competition between stevedores which is always very impressive, he confides. Over the years, I have also forged ties in this environment. “
After taking leave from the Bel RTL weekend morning listeners at the end of June, Frédéric Bastien is now retired. And for the Libramont Fair next year? He always got into the habit of saving his answer from year to year. And this is still the case for the 2024 edition…
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