2023-06-19 18:36:38
Less than three weeks before the opening of the “Les Ardentes” Festival, the organizers as well as the authorities of the two municipalities concerned, Liège and Ans, presented all the organizational measures put in place for local residents and businesses as well as security and mobility measures. In total, the overall budget amounts to 22 million euros.
From July 6 to 9, the second edition of Les Ardentes on the Rocourt site should welcome 65,000 festival-goers per day, including many festival-goers.
Girls are in the majority, and we really want to listen
At Les Ardentes, more than half of the public is indeed female, as Jennifer Wuilcot, the festival’s operational director, points out: “It’s a festival where girls are in the majority, we have a little over 60% female audience, and we really want to listen and be able to provide them with all the information and all the help – if necessary they needed it – necessary throughout the festival, whether for questions, for a service… Everything is possible, we are here to listen to them and above all to make everyone feel good regarding the festival.”
Synka, the new security project
Because one of the priority aspects of the festival is security. This year, a new project has also been set up. “Security is an important focus for us because it is important that both festival-goers and their parents feel safe at the time of the festival, when their children are at the festival or at the campsite” explains Jennifer Wuilcot. “We are working on multiple aspects, whether at the level of guarding or security which is put in place and on this new Synka project which is a project of information, awareness and listening to young people which is being implemented. place on the festival site and on the campsite to welcome them if they have been victims of harassment, whether verbal or physical violence. Prevention Center for Sexual Violence, to be able to offer optimal listening.”
A good collaboration between Liège and Ans
For his part, the mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer, highlights the good collaboration between the two municipalities hosting the festival: “The mayors, both that of Ans, Grégory Philippin, and myself, take responsibility for issuing permits, and we do this on the basis of multiple contact meetings with local residents, with festival-goers, but also between all the services concerned, first and foremost the police services and the organisers.”
The police services which will be present in number throughout the festival, around the site, but also on the site, with in particular a Safety zone in the event of aggression or any other fact to report to the police.
Avoid wild parking, favor the train
During the festival, the issue of mobility is also present, “but in particular through the establishment of perimeters reserved exclusively for local residents, we try to dissuade unauthorized parking and direct festival-goers to the car parks intended for them in order to guarantee mobility around the site. residents have accreditations and are well aware of the area – there are 5 – in which they live, however, it must be communicated that festival-goers will not have access with their car to the streets surrounding the festival” specifies Christophe Dekens, head of the Ans police force.
The police also advise festival-goers to favor alternative transport such as the train (via Ans station, where no less than 20,000 festival-goers should transit).
Quite satisfied residents
Finally, on the side of the residents, the dialogue is evolving rather positively and a debriefing will be organized following the festival, as confirmed by Grégory Philippin, the mayor of Ans: “We held a meeting before the festival and we will do one once more following the festival so as to draw the positive and the negative. But we held a meeting a month ago and the residents were particularly happy and unanimous regarding the ‘organization.”
The Les Ardentes Festival will therefore be from Thursday July 6 to Sunday July 9. Find the whole program ici.
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