Festival Interceltique de Lorient

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Current festival logo
Agence Cyanea , 2012

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

Bagad of the French Navy from Lann-Bihoué at FIL 2011
Breton an-dro dancers in historical costume

The Festival Interceltique de Lorient , FIL or FIL for short , is a music and culture festival that is held every summer in the Breton port city of Lorient . It evolved from the Championnat national des bagadoù , which took place for the first time in Lorient in 1971 , a competition of Breton marching bands , which are called Bagadoù in Brittany . Just one year later it expanded thematically to the music of all Celtic nations and has long been considered the epitome of a worldwide, profane "Celtism". In since 2012 common new logo of the festival, this is a erdumgreifenden , composed of many musical instruments Triskell symbolizes.

The event has lasted ten days since 1976 and expanded to all areas of the fine arts at a very early stage . In the 21st century it is not only the largest festival in Brittany - where it has overtaken the much older Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper and also attracts more visitors than the Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix-Plouguer  - but one of the largest in all of France advanced. Today the FIL forms “the link between a rural culture of music, dance and traditional costumes, as it was still alive until the beginning of the 20th century, and a culture of great spectacle characteristic of the 21st century”. Thanks to its audience popularity, which now stands at each about 800,000 visitors, and its wide, not just in Europe limited medialisation it possesses a high PR effect for the central city of Lorient, which is also a significant source of revenue for local traders and a positive effect on the municipal budget .

The Festival Interceltique de Lorient is called Emvod ar Gelted en Oriant in Breton , but is also referred to by the organizing association as the Festival Etrekeltiek An Oriant . It usually begins on the first weekend in August and ends on the second Sunday of the month. Its 50th anniversary in 2020 should actually be celebrated from August 7th to 16th and have the motto "Year of Brittany" (in Breton Bloavezh Breizh ). Due to the coronavirus pandemic , the 2020 festival was canceled and both the anniversary celebration and this motto were postponed to 2021. Instead, a concert with four Bagadoù (Fête des Cornemuses 2020) in the Stade du Moustoir has been organized for August 8th to commemorate the beginnings of the FIL, at least on a small scale.

Origin and development

The Bagad Kemper at the 2012 Grand Parade
Asturian dancers (FIL 2006)
Queensland Irish Association Band (FIL 2006)
Street musician

The beginnings

The nucleus of the Festival Interceltique de Lorient and also a central event on its 50th birthday is the national championship of Bagadoù , which takes place in two rounds . This competition took place in Brest from 1949 to 1970 and since then, after the local government no longer wanted to support it to the extent that it had done, in Lorient. The participating instrumental groups are divided annually into five quality categories based on their performance. As in sport, there is promotion and relegation; a twelve-person jury of musicians evaluates the playing of the individual instruments, their harmony and the visual impression of each group. At the end of the 2010s, 75 Bagadoù alone belonged to the top four " leagues ", all the others to the fifth category. From 2008 to 2019 only two groups were able to secure the title in the highest category, namely four times the "record champion" Bagad Kemper (a total of 22 times winner) and eight times the Bagad Cap Caval from Plomeur . Already the first championship, which took place in Lorient (1971), was framed, albeit to a relatively modest extent, by additional events, which in their diversity quickly became characteristic of the FIL: a pageant of musicians and dancers, evening street parties and - in the completely overcrowded Congress Palace - a folk concert.

The origin of the festival is also in the context of a return to the Breton cultural identity ( " Breton Renaissance to see"), which began in the late 1960s and staffed especially with the musicologist and resistance fighters pole Monjarret and the harpist and singer Alan Stivell linked is. Monjarret, co-founder and temporarily chairman of the Bodadeg ar Sonerion association (meaning "Association of [traditional] musicians"), was also the one who brought the Bagadoù championships against competition from the equally interested cities of Nantes and Saint-Malo from Brest to Lorient . During the 2008 festival, a statue of Polig Monjarret was inaugurated, after which a street and a square in Lorient are named. Stivell has brought the folk music of Brittany closer to the post-war generation since the 1960s not only through the "rediscovery" and reuse of the Celtic harp , but also through the combination of traditional and current musical styles. And parallel to this occurred at the transition from the 1960s to the 1970s in France's pop music scene increasingly a new generation of artists to the fore, influenced by the ideas of May 1968 , active against even under President Pompidou continuing conservatism and pronounced centralism French in the Politics. New topics and new types of events were important to her; the chanson connoisseur Gilles Verlant briefly characterizes them as “feminist, Protestant, self-determined - and no longer just French-speaking”.
The festival in Lorient was called Fête Interceltique des Cornemuses de Lorient from 1972 to 1978 inclusive , in 1979 it took on its name, which is still valid today. The organizers in Lorient are said not to have been aware that there was already an inter-Celtic festival of the same name in Riec-sur-Bélon in 1927 .

The first organizers of the festival, namely the club chairman Pierrot Guergadic, who was in office until 1997, already looked outside the box of a purely musical event in 1972 and tried, among other things, to play a football match of a professional Breton against a Scottish national team that did not exist at the time Integrate program. Instead there was "only" a friendly game between FC Lorient , which was reinforced with some non-club players, and FC Falkirk . Also, there was this year a demonstration event for athletes from Cornwall in Cornish wrestling , a centuries-old form of wrestling , and two competitions of Breton and Scottish cyclists ( time trial and persecution ) on the race track of the Stade Velodrome . In the following year, sporting events even became one of the main focuses of the FIL; The first Jeux des Nations Celtes ("Games of the Celtic Nations") included football and cycling in 1973, tennis , chess , Breton fistfighting and several disciplines of the Highland Games .
Also in the early years, theater performances , exhibitions of art objects and historical clothing, film evenings and readings (Salon du livre) - in 1977 by Xavier Grall , Glenmor (real name Émile Le Scanve) and Pierre-Jakez Hélias  - enriched the program. In addition, current developments such as the oil pollution of Breton coastline by the accidents in Amoco Cadiz (1978) and Erika (1999/2000), the (successful) fight of the residents at the Pointe du Raz against a planned nuclear power plant in Plogoff (1978 to 1981) or the movement for the reunification of all five Breton départements echoed at the festival.

While in the early days the participants came mainly from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, apart from France, this circle expanded as early as the mid-1970s; Galician artists in 1976 and Manx artists in 1977 appeared in Lorient for the first time. At the same time, the number of participating soloists, groups and bands from those nations that had already been at the festival in 1972 increased, for example Scots from 70 to 150, Irish from 60 to 150 and Welsh from a handful to 50 (each until 1976 ). In the same year, the association built a network of responsible contacts in the other Celtic regions (délégués étrangers) .

Since 1994, the festival is dedicated to one or several nations annually, each contribute financially to the organization and implementation, the Scottish government in 2007, for example, with 450,000 euros. The first "guest of honor" was Galicia. In the meantime, in addition to the six modern Celtic core countries (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany), Acadia , Asturias and - due to its noteworthy Irish immigration - Australia have also been added. In 2000 the FIL was dedicated to the entire Celtic world, in 2011 to the Celtic diaspora . This growing participation is partly responsible for the fact that a scientific study comes to the conclusion:

"If there is one place where the idea of ​​Inter-Celticism has become a reality, it is undoubtedly Lorient during the festival."

In 1996 the EU Commission named the Interceltique Festival, along with just twelve others, including the Salzburg Festival , the Edinburgh Festival and, in France, the Avignon Festival and the Printemps de Bourges , as a “European Festival”. The criteria for this were the roots in the region, the artistic importance, the economic effects emanating from it and its importance for cooperation and integration in Europe.

The French state, on the other hand, found it difficult for a long time to appreciate the importance of the festival - even under the leadership of the socialists . Because the French constitution still states that the country has only one language; This led to the fact that in 2015 the Senate refused to ratify and bring into force the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages from 1992, from which the Breton language would also benefit . In 1985, Jack Lang was the first minister of culture to attend the event, but financial support in the years that followed was only a fraction of the amounts received by other major cultural events. It wasn't until 2001 that Catherine Tasca , one of Lang's successors, announced at least a tripling of the previous grant for Lorient.

Preserving traditions, developing traditions

The Festival Interceltique was not the first big fair in Lorient. From 1953 to 1956, a festival dedicated to the Duchess Anne de Bretagne with a parade (Triomphe de la duchesse Anne d'Armorique) was held there, at which - as with the FIL - the local Celtic circle of friends (cercle celtique) and several Bagadoù involved. In 1969, a municipal committee organized a Breton harbor festival (Fête des ports bretons) , from which the FIL adopted the idea of ​​a maritime orientation, which is documented, among other things, in a large, public fish dinner in the open air. However, from the beginning the FIL did not limit itself to simply copying classic elements of earlier folk festivals.

As early as 1973, the festival visitors saw the introduction of a series of new competitions, all of which aimed to preserve some of the almost forgotten elements of Celtic folk culture and especially folk music (called Kan ar bobl , known as the song of the people in Brittany ). Gwerz , a special form of lamentation, Kan ha Diskan ("Singing and counter-singing"), the Breton variant of the alternating song , along with the associated dances and a competition of school choirs in Breton, as requested by the DIWAN association and a few years later Schools could be practiced. The FIL management decided that it was five to twelve to save this cultural heritage from extinction.

At the same time, the Interceltique Festival always offered a stage for the connection between old and new. On the one hand, this was shown by the fact that as early as the 1970s, bands naturally used traditional and modern instruments side by side and rearranged historical songs into pop songs. The Bagadoù also began to expand their repertoires , albeit less often and only later . In 1989 it was almost like a “cultural revolution” when the Bagad de Quimperlé, in the context of the 200-year celebrations of the French Revolution, performed its own composition during its competition, depicting the uprising of the Vendée and the fighting between Chouans , republican Troops and National Guards themed.

However, this modernization of the Celtic tradition did not always meet with approval. At the National Championships of Bagadoù in 1992, the Bagad from Auray won the title in the highest category by - as the jury put it - “an evolution towards a more jazzy interplay, with a more complex rhythm and with something brought into the Breton tradition from outside Elements ”had demonstrated. A spokesman for the still influential musicians' association Bodadeg ar Sonerion from the neighboring Finistère department criticized this decision: “We do not question the skills [of the winner], but nobody should believe or make others believe that his performance was Breton music . "

Organization and growth

The FIL is organized by the Association Festival Interceltique de Lorient , a registered association under French law (association loi de 1901) with a good dozen permanent employees (2018), the number of which increases to up to 45 full-time employees in the summer, although the technical staff is not are included. Jean Peeters has headed the festival association since May 2019. Artistic director is Lisardo Lombardía, who comes from Asturias and who in 2007 replaced Jean-Pierre Pichard, who had held this position in 1972.

Under Lombardia's direction, the FIL has developed into a “Festival of Discoveries”. Throughout the year, local confidants, members of his team and himself attend concerts in different regions in order to recruit hitherto unknown artists for the next festival. For each program, Lombardía strives for “a balance between known and new artists”. Since 2016, the association has no longer limited itself to providing the youngsters with a stage during the festival; rather, with his program New Leurenn (in German "new scene") he runs or arranges sponsorships of an artistic and financial nature for individual up-and-coming musicians and dance groups, whom he considers particularly worthy of support. According to Lombardía, behind this is the claim that the festival should " not just be a trade fair , but develop culture further. "

From an early age, Lorient's administration, including the mayors Jean Lagarde (term of office from 1973 to 1981) and Jean-Yves Le Drian (1981 to 1998), supported the organizers in their plans to expand the festival. There is no information on the total number of visitors for the three-day event in 1971; the final of the Bagadoù championship is said to have attracted around 1,000 spectators , and an estimated 30,000 people lined the streets for the parade of a total of 45 music, dance and costume groups. In 1999 the number of half a million visitors was reached for the first time, in 2010 the festival association counted around 800,000 visitors in the 57,000-inhabitant city of Lorient. In view of the festival character and especially the often open access not only to the open-air events - visitors have free entry to around 60% of the events - such information can of course only be estimates. A representative visitor survey of the Agence d'Urbanisme, de Développement Économique et Technopole du Pays de Lorient (AUDÉLOR) exists for 2017 . According to this, around 273,000 different people took part in an average of 2.75 events each, whereby this value covers a range of "between one and 34 events" and the statistical differentiation shows that this is a "celebration for everyone": the proportion of women was 53%, 21% were employed as workers or employees, every ninth (11%) was a pupil or student, as the under 30s made up a quarter of all visitors. On the other hand, the proportion of retirees was also 16%.

The total budget of the organizers in 2010 was around 5 million euros. Around a third of this comes from public bodies (city, municipal association , Morbihan department , regional council and French state); Further sources of income are the entrance fees of the visitors, the subsidy of the respective central Celtic region, sponsoring in particular through the regional print and AV media , large and small donations as well as the sale of merchandising products . A record with pieces of music from the concerts has been produced and distributed annually since 1972 . The numerous voluntary helpers play an essential role in the financing and implementation of the festival ; a number of them even worked on it for decades. In 2010 there were around 700 such unpaid supporters who were entrusted with different tasks in 20 teams. In this respect, too, the FIL has changed, according to long-time volunteers: “We started out as a festival of friends, now it's an international one”, whereby the organizers also give them the right to have a say and to make decisions.
While the FIL was in the red more often well into the 1980s, the association closed the FIL 2019, which attracted almost 800,000 visitors, with a surplus of around 90,000 euros.

Performing musicians

The Sœurs Goadec
Gilles Servat in Lorient
Fred Morrison

With the thematic and quantitative growth of the FIL, the number and areas of origin of the performing musicians have also expanded significantly. At the event, which lasted only six days in 1972, the group was still primarily limited to Brittany itself, in particular Ireland, Scotland and - to a lesser extent - Wales. The best- known performers at the time were Youenn Gwernig , Gilles Servat - he was the singer with the most appearances in the first 40 years of the festival - Tri Yann , Brenda Wootton , Máire Ní Bhraonáin , the Goadec sisters and Alan Stivell, who also performed there in 1971 was. The participants in the French national championship of Bagadoù and numerous pipe bands from Scotland and Ireland joined them. In the first few years Dan Ar Braz , The Dubliners or The Chieftains were among the train numbers in Lorient.

The first international star - Alain Cabon even speaks of the absolute high point of the first festival decade - is generally considered to be Joan Baez , who gave a concert in the Parc du Moustoir in 1978 and then was instructed on stage by Alan Stivell, among others, in Breton folk dances. Over the years, the list of top acts got longer and longer, as did their origins and musical styles ; it ranges from Yann-Fañch Kemener , Didier Squiban , Denez Prigent to I Muvrini , Fred Morrison , the seven-time winner of a trophy donated by the Scottish whiskey distillery The Macallan since 1980 , The Cranberries , Loreena McKennitt , Angelo Branduardi , Capercaillie , Winston McAnuff , Rory Gallagher , who gave his last public concert at the FIL in 1994, Deborah Henson-Conant , Roch Voisine , Sinéad O'Connor and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers , Buffy Sainte-Marie , Jorge Suarez Carbajal , Gwennyn and Amy Macdonald .

In 2019 there were concerts by the local hero Soldat Louis , who had had their career breakthrough at FIL 1987, Nolwenn Leroy , the Bagad Kemper , who celebrated their 70th anniversary there with a joint appearance with the rock band Red Cardell , Clarisse Lavanant , Carlos Núñez , Goran Bregović with the Bretagne Symphony Orchestra, Gwendal , Mercedes Peón , Harmonica Creams from Japan, Cécile Corbel and many other soloists and bands, as well as a three-digit number of Bagadoù and instrumental groups from all participating nations.
Not to be forgotten are the traditional costume groups , which are widespread in Brittany and often perform traditional dances of the region at local festivals . Over the decades, other artistic competitions have been added, for example the Matilin Trophy to Dall for duos from Bombarde and Binioù kozh , who have performed new compositions of their own, since 1991 .

Alem & Krismenn

Musically, the festival is no longer limited to traditional Celtic music, which has not always met with approval from some “cultural purists”. When, for example, the folk punk band The Pogues was invited in 1986 and actually performed a “concertante delirium with high percentage decibels [in the double sense of the word] ” , the Ministry of Culture threatened the organizers with the withdrawal of state funding. However, they did not allow themselves to be dissuaded from their concept of presenting world music regardless of geographical and stylistic origin - Manu Dibango also played in Lorient in the same year . For example, Charlie McCoy brought country and westerns to Brittany in 1991 , and in 2005, Guirab, a small pipe band that was made up exclusively of Palestinian women from one of the large refugee camps in southern Lebanon , took part in the Great Parade . This development continued to increase into the 2010s. This is shown, for example, by the appearances of Startijenn , Lucía Martínez , Les Ramoneurs de menhirs or Krismenn . The latter stands for a musical style made up of “Breton rap ”, electropop and hip-hop , which he presented solo at the FIL in 2014 and in 2016 together with Alem and an Australian didgeridoo player as a “ human beatbox ”.

The 2020 program should include 120 official events. According to a statement published on March 30, despite the coronavirus pandemic , the organizers still assumed that the festival would take place in August as planned; however, they postponed the presentation of the program and the opening of ticket sales for a month and a half. After the French government had banned all major events by the end of August, the association's board of directors decided on April 30th to cancel FIL 2020. The 50th festival birthday is to be rescheduled from August 6th to 15th, 2021, and then below that planned for 2020 The motto is "Year of Brittany".

Venues

Fest-noz in the Salle Carnot
The Grand Théâtre (2018)

Pageants, concerts, dance events, readings, language and music courses, presentations and exhibitions take place throughout the city, partly under roof, partly on the streets, squares and in the Lorient parks. In addition to the official program, an off-festival - with both planned and spontaneous appearances - has established itself, which also takes place open air as well as in clubs and bars.

"Magical Nights" in the stadium (2018)

Central events, which are also very popular with the public, are the concerts and street parades, in particular the Grande Parade des Nations Celtes , which runs for several kilometers across the inner city and the harbor and on which around 3,500 musicians recently marched. The Bagad de Lann-Bihoué, stationed on the military section of Lorient Airport , has had the privilege of leading this move for decades .
Traditional music and folk dances are inextricably linked and widespread in Celtic culture. In Brittany, they are on the already since the early modern existing Festou-noz presented Community gatherings with music and dance. These "night festivals" have been taking place in increasing numbers again, particularly since the end of the 20th century: while around 300 of these often multi-day events were held there in 1990, their number had quintupled in 2012 to 1,500. In Lorient, the Salle Carnot is the central place where thousands of visitors can dance the ten nights.

The largest venue of the festival is the Stade du Moustoir , located on the outskirts of the city center, with up to 18,000 seats, in which, in addition to individual concerts, the "magic nights" and the second round of the Bagadoù championships in the first category take place and where the Great Parade ends . The Grand Théâtre , the fishing port Port de pêche de Keroman , the 6,000-seat marquee in Kergroise , the University of South Brittany , the Congress Palace and the concert halls of the Hydrophone, which opened in 2019 in a former submarine bunker , are also among the festival's major stages ("Water Sounds").

Since 1994 the organizing association has also "exported" the FIL, namely to Paris , which is known as the "sixth Breton department" or, according to ex-Mayor Bertrand Delanoë , as the "largest city in Brittany" due to its high number of residents of Brittany. In the capital, the association organizes - albeit intermittently - a large concert of Celtic music on St. Patrick's Day , initially in the Quartier des Halles , from 2002 to 2004 in the Stade de France and then in the Palais Omnisports de Bercy as “Celtic Nights". In September 2007 there was a "Breizh Parade" in which around 3,000 musicians and dancers marched over the Champs-Élysées . At the beginning of March 2020, the concert, this time entitled "Night of Brittany", which was planned in the Paris La Défense Arena , was banned by the authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as were all hall events with more than 5,000 participants.

Economic factor and media perception

The hydrophone - from a marine bunker to a cultural place

Since the 1980s, Lorient had been badly economically affected by two events in particular, and its future prospects appeared uncertain: on the one hand, due to the ongoing crisis in industrial fishing with sharply declining landings , and, on the other, due to the decommissioning of its submarine base by the Ministry of Defense, which was completed in 1997 . The fact that the municipality was able to counteract this downward trend at a relatively early stage is attributed mainly to two reasons in an analysis of Lorient's recent development published in 2011. In addition to the conversion of several port areas and facilities from commercial or military to civil uses, the Interceltique Festival is a cornerstone of the recovery that is looming after the turn of the millennium. The journalist Anne-Claire Loaëc describes the FIL as an “irrevocable and profitable component” of this trend because it gives the city a “financial manna ”. A study published in 2018 confirms this finding with the words that the festival is a “very important economic stimulus”.

The fact that the hotel and catering industry in and around Lorient in particular benefit from the high six-digit visitor numbers is almost self-explanatory when you consider that only around a quarter of the approximately 750,000 visitors in 2017 were based in this urban region, while almost 60% came from outside the Morbihan department and 43% of them had stayed there at least once. According to an unrepresentative survey, the owners of pubs and restaurants stated that they achieve up to 30% of their annual turnover on these ten days, and the person responsible for the organizing association for finances estimated for 2010 that every visitor on average in addition to the expenditure for admission tickets around 30 euros, leaving a total of 24 million euros in the city. This total value is confirmed by a study of the economic impact of the festival from 2017, which also comes to the conclusion that every euro invested for the FIL - this year the organizers' expenditure amounted to 6.3 million euros - a return flow of 3 Generated 80 euros.
For the accommodation of non-residents, the Lorients tourism association lists 41 hotels, including those in Quimperlé 25 kilometers away and on the Île de Groix , over twenty tent and 30 camper pitches and numerous other overnight accommodations (guest rooms, holiday homes , holiday villages).

Further positive effects for the greater Lorient area are due to the fact that the organizers offer 700 to 800 temporary workplaces for fitters, technicians, security services and ticket sales in addition to permanent employees from mid-July to mid-August; In addition, a large part of the club's expenditure remains in the region because local and regional companies are preferred when awarding contracts - in 2010 this accounted for 83% of the 5 million euro budget.

At the 2010 festival, for example, employees from seven press agencies , 26 domestic newspapers and magazines, 23 radio, nine television stations and 33 foreign media were accredited . This broad coverage of the festival also has a positive financial effect that can be roughly quantified, because the cost savings for advertisements that advertise the city and the surrounding area as a worthwhile travel destination were, according to a study, in the order of four million euros in 2008 should. The official media partners also contribute to this; At the end of the 2010s, these were the print media L'Express , Le Monde and the program magazine Télé 7 jours , which were published throughout France, as well as the regional daily newspapers Le Télégramme and Ouest-France as well as the television and radio programs of France 3 and France Bleu .

All in all, many residents, business people, associations and the city administration in Lorient have been supporting the implementation of the festival for years, be it because they benefit financially, even actively participate in its organization or attend events as those interested in culture. On the other hand, there were repeated complaints from residents about the restrictions and harassment that they had to endure not only during the ten days of the festival. For example, a group of inner-city residents complained against the noise pollution and the temporary privatization of public space, because the FIL association had previously demanded entry on some streets and squares, for example at the Great Parade. The plaintiffs, who ironically referred to themselves as bonnets de nuit (" sleeping hats "), therefore demanded that the festival should be moved to the outskirts. The court ruling issued in 2000 only gave them the right to use urban areas free of charge and prohibited the organizers from charging admission fees there.

The FIL as an example of the cultural transformation of folk festivals

Catherine Bertho Lavenir, cultural scientist at the Sorbonne , has dealt with the metamorphosis that folk festivals have undergone in the past century, parallel to socio-economic change. In this cultural change, which she analyzed in the form of a three-step development, this festival can also and especially be classified very precisely, as she explains in a treatise entitled “Beyond Folklore: The Festival Interceltique von Lorient”.

Pardon in Brittany
( Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret , 1886)

For the past 120 years or so she diagnosed the changes in the traditional folk festivals, which were mainly held in the agricultural region; these essentially followed the calendar that resulted from the cultivation cycle as well as the religious holidays and parades ( pardons ). Music and dances had a direct connection to the activities of the rural population, the clothes worn at the festivals were at the same time a sign of their origin and their respective social position . Actors and audience were still largely identical.
Since then, the festivals have undergone increasing change - with some of the characteristics of the previous epoch being retained - which has resulted from changes in economic and settlement structures, the associated demographic change , new technical possibilities and developments in attitudes and perspectives. The author presents the effects of these changes on the folk festivals in a simplified schematic diagram in the table below.

Culture
level		 event
location		 character Doer Intentions,
goals
traditionally rural world Village, harvest, religious festivals entire village
community		 Preservation
of traditions
modern,
urban		 City including new residents
and (holiday) guests		 Open-air events,
fairs, tourist entertainment		 Groups of folk
lovers		 authenticity
postmodern,
globalized		 City and (via media,
web) export to the world		 Performances for a large audience,
"industrialized spectacle"		 Culture professionals,
subsidized amateurs		 Perceptibility

In today's Festival Interceltique, Bertho Lavenir finds a "symbolic system of references to the multi-layered heritage" of the previous two stages of development. It continues to use characteristic elements from folk festivals of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the same time, however, it integrates them into a post-modern framework, which can be seen, for example, in addressing current political issues, the primacy given to media reporting, anchoring in the globalized world or its ties to industrial cultural production. The scientist sums up that the FIL is

"Not just a place where traditional culture is rethought ... but also a place where culture is renegotiated."

Pascal Lamour, himself an award-winning Breton musician and arranger , assesses the current character of this and many other traditional festivals in a similar way. According to him, it is - and even has to be - "an anthill, constantly in motion, a swarm in every respect [...] that only enables it to last by developing diverse facets." Lisardo Lombardía sums this up even more briefly: " Tradition has to reinvent itself every day. ”And, according to Lombardía's long-time predecessor Jean-Pierre Pichard, the organizers' intention from the start was“ to create a festival that moves forward [while] respecting the Treads existing paths of a new creation by mediating between [tradition and future]. "

Such new creations on Celtic themes have been increasingly observed at the FIL since the 1980s, when, for example, Alan Stivell composed and performed a Symphonie celtique , Paddy Moloney Tristan and Isolde , Roland Becker Lug , Marc Steckar the Celtophonies and Tri Yann Le vaisseau de pierre . As one journalist puts it,

“Cornemuse, Bombarde, Uilleann Pipes enter into a symbiosis with classical orchestras ... and partly integrate Indian or Kabyle music. Far from locking up Celtic music in a traditionalist ghetto, the festival opens its windows to rock, jazz and all techniques such as laser shows and videos. "

- Fañch Gestin (1995)

literature

  • Agence d'Urbanisme, de Développement Économique et Technopole du Pays de Lorient (AUDÉLOR): Quel impact économique des évènements culturels et sportifs dans l'agglomeration de Lorient? Les examples du FIL, du FCL et des 24 heures kayak. Note de l'observatoire territorial N o 101, April 2018, also available as PDF
  • Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient. Presses Universitaires de France, Revue Éthnologie française 2012/4 Vol. 42, ISSN 0046-2616, pp. 719–731
  • Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient. Quarante ans au cœur du monde celte. Ed. Ouest-France, Rennes 2010, ISBN 978-2-7373-5119-8
  • Erwan Chartier: La construction de l'interceltisme en Bretagne, des origines à nos jours. Mise en perspective historique et idéologique. Thesis on obtaining a doctorate at the University of Rennes 2 , September 2010, also available as PDF
  • Joël Cornette: Histoire de la Bretagne et des Bretons. Tome 2: Des Lumières au XXIe siècle. Ed. du Seuil, Paris 2005, ISBN 978-2-7578-0996-9
  • Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne. Ed. Ouest-France, Rennes 2018, ISBN 978-2-7373-7898-0
  • Anne-Claire Loaëc: Lorient - Cap sur la mer. , in: Bretons , Heft 65, May 2011, pp. 48–53
  • Jean-Jacques Monnier and Jean-Christophe Cassard (eds.): Toute l'histoire de Bretagne. Des origines à la fin du XXe siècle. Skol Vreizh, Morlaix 2014, 5th edition, ISBN 978-2-915-623-79-6

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ a b Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient , 2012, p. 719
  2. ↑ according to the official sticker of FIL 2020 (accessed on March 18, 2020), confirmed in a written communication from the organizers dated March 16, 2020 to the main author of this article
  3. ↑ Logo 2020 on festival-interceltique.bzh (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  4. ↑ These are the music trains Bagad Kemper , Bagad Cap Caval, Bagad Roñsed-Mor and Bagad Lorient - see the concert announcement on the festival page .
  5. ↑ a b Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p. 11
  6. ↑ Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, pp. 147–153.
  7. ↑ Erwan Chartier: La construction de l'interceltisme en Bretagne , 2010, p. 561
  8. ↑ Jean-Jacques Monnier and Jean-Christophe Cassard: Toute l'histoire de Bretagne , 2014, p. 760
  9. ↑ Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, p. 147; Joël Cornette: Histoire de la Bretagne et des Bretons , 2005, Volume 2, p. 587
  10. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 129; a picture of the statue can be found at patrimoine.lorient.bzh (accessed April 1, 2020).
  11. ↑ At the beginning of the 1970s, Breton first and place names, language lessons and bumper stickers were still forbidden, the Gwenn-ha-du could only be hoisted during folkloric festivals (based on Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p. 6). It was not until 1977 that the central government in Paris under President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing permitted bilingual teaching (French and Breton) in all schools in Brittany with the Breton Cultural Charter ; Bilingual place-name signs and signs were not tolerated until 1983 (see Jean-Jacques Monnier and Jean-Christophe Cassard: Toute l'histoire de Bretagne , 2014, p. 813).
  12. ↑ Gilles Verlant: L'Odyssée de la chanson française. Ed. Hors Collection, Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2-258-07087-5 , pp. 142 f.
  13. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 10
  14. ^ Georges Cadiou: Les grands noms du football breton. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2006, ISBN 2-84910-424-8 , p. 18; the match ended with a 2-1 victory for the Scots.
  15. ↑ See the almost five-minute television report about the 1972 FIL by ORTF , available on the INA website , starting there at 1:55 minutes (accessed on March 18, 2020).
  16. ↑ a b Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p. 18
  17. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 21
  18. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 24, 27 and 32
  19. ↑ By order of the Vichy regime in 1941, the Loire-Atlantique department, including the historic Breton capital of Nantes, was separated from the modern administrative region of Brittany. With Bretagne réunie , 44 = Breizh and Breizh 5/5, there are also a number of clubs and movements in 2020 that want to reverse this.
  20. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, pp 35 and 44
  21. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, pp. 18, 28 and 31
  22. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 141
  23. ↑ according to the article " Festival Interceltique de Lorient - En direct " from August 12, 2007 at 2007.festival-interceltique.antourtan.com (accessed on March 25, 2020)
  24. ↑ Erwan Chartier: La construction de l'interceltisme en Bretagne , 2010, p. 560
  25. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 89
  26. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 58 and 105
  27. ↑ Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient , 2012, p. 720
  28. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 22
  29. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 68
  30. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 75
  31. ↑ a b c d Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, p. 180
  32. ↑ Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, p. 179
  33. ↑ Le Drian has been French Foreign Minister since 2017 .
  34. ↑ a b Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p. 12
  35. ^ Joël Cornette: Histoire de la Bretagne et des Bretons , 2005, Volume 2, p. 592
  36. ↑ Article “ Record attendance at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient ” from August 16, 2010 at lemonde.fr (accessed on March 18, 2020); The Lorient Agglomération community association has a total of 200,000 inhabitants.
  37. ↑ AUDÉLOR: What impact économique des évènements culturels et sportifs dans l'agglomeration de Lorient? , 2018, the results presented here on p. 2. The study, which compares the Festival Interceltique with two other major events from the Lorient area, is based on the evaluation of almost 8,400 questionnaires (6,400 of them from FIL visitors) that were submitted in autumn 2017 had been sent back to AUDÉLOR.
  38. ↑ See an example of the “ List of partners and patrons ” for the 2020 Festival on the organizers' website (accessed on March 18, 2020).
  39. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 140
  40. ↑ " FIL: Green light regarding the 50th birthday " from November 16, 2019 at letelegramme.fr (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  41. ↑ see the event poster from 1972 at encycl-celt.chez-alice.fr (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  42. ↑ Laurent Bourdelas: Alan Stivell. Ed. Le mot et le reste, Marseille 2017, ISBN 978-2-3605-4455-4 , p. 66
  43. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p. 19 ff.
  44. ↑ Erwan Chartier: La construction de l'interceltisme en Bretagne , 2010, p. 563; Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, pp. 34/35.
  45. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 85
  46. ↑ Program announcement for 2019 from April 11, 2019 at ouest-france.fr (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  47. ↑ after the program announcement on November 15, 2018 at festival-interceltique.bzh (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  48. ↑ Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, p. 160; This trophy is named after Mathurin François Furic (1789-1859), called in Breton Matilin an Dall ("Mathurin the Blind"), a Breton flautist who was highly regarded by contemporaries and who performed this type of duet with virtuosity .
  49. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 62 f .; According to this source, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan even had to go to a hospital after the performance.
  50. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 118
  51. ↑ FIL program announcement for August 14, 2016 at issuu.com, there on p. 45 (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  52. ↑ see the announcement on the page of the Office de Tourisme Lorient Bretagne Sud (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  53. ↑ "Notre festival n'est absolument pas remis en question" , after the message " The Festival Interceltique is continuing its preparation " on festival-interceltique.bzh (accessed on March 30, 2020)
  54. ↑ Article " Festival Interceltique de Lorient with a program similar to 2020 postponed to summer 2021 " from April 30, 2020 at actu.fr (accessed on April 30, 2020)
  55. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 122
  56. ^ Jean-Jacques Monnier and Jean-Christophe Cassard: Toute l'histoire de Bretagne , 2014, pp. 812 and 822
  57. ↑ Article " Operation new look for the Salle Carnot successful " from August 8, 2019 at ouest-france.fr (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  58. ↑ Erwan Chartier: La construction de l'interceltisme en Bretagne , 2010, p. 565
  59. ↑ Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, p. 23
  60. ↑ Jean-Jacques Monnier and Jean-Christophe Cassard: Toute l'histoire de Bretagne , 2014, p. 820
  61. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 124/125
  62. ↑ see the press release on the cancellation of the event on March 2, 2020 (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  63. ^ Joël Cornette: Histoire de la Bretagne et des Bretons , 2005, Volume 2, p. 579 f.
  64. ↑ Anne-Claire LOAEC: Lorient - Cap sur la mer , 2011, p 49
  65. ↑ a b c d Anne-Claire Loaëc: Lorient - Cap sur la mer , 2011, p. 52
  66. ↑ AUDÉLOR: What impact économique des évènements culturels et sportifs dans l'agglomeration de Lorient? , 2018, p. 3
  67. ↑ AUDÉLOR: What impact économique des évènements culturels et sportifs dans l'agglomeration de Lorient? , 2018, p. 2
  68. ↑ AUDÉLOR: What impact économique des évènements culturels et sportifs dans l'agglomeration de Lorient? , 2018, p. 4
  69. ↑ “ Where to stay? "On the website of the Office de Tourisme Lorient Bretagne Sud (accessed on March 18, 2020)
  70. ↑ This name also includes an allusion to the Bonnets rouges , who revolted in western Brittany in 1675 against a tax increase ordered by Louis XIV . In 1975, Breton communists and autonomists in particular celebrated the 300th anniversary of this révolte du papier timbré . - Jean-Jacques Monnier and Jean-Christophe Cassard: Toute l'histoire de Bretagne , 2014, p. 371 ff.
  71. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p 103
  72. ↑ Catherine Berthon Lavenir: du au delà folklore: le festival interceltic de Lorient. Presses Universitaires de France, Revue Éthnologie française 2012/4 Vol. 42, ISSN 0046-2616, pp. 719–731
  73. ↑ Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient , 2012, p. 722
  74. ↑ Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient , 2012, p. 721 f.
  75. ↑ Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient , 2012, p. 724 f.
  76. ↑ Catherine Bertho Lavenir: Au-delà du folklore: le festival interceltique de Lorient , 2012, p. 731
  77. ↑ Pascal Lamour: Un monde de musique bretonne , 2018, p. 175
  78. ↑ Alain Cabon: Le Festival Interceltique de Lorient , 2010, p. 7
  79. ↑ Erwan Chartier: La construction de l'interceltisme en Bretagne , 2010, p. 563