Philip Steiner : I wanted to take an interest in the economic sociology of the party since it is my specialty as a sociologist. When it comes to an investigation of this order, you need to be able to have access to restaurateurs and café owners who know you well enough to agree to entrust you with information about their activity. Which is my case since I come from this city where I spent my youth and my adolescence. Another deeper reason is that these Bayonne festivals were created ex-nihilo: it is a recent creation and therefore easier to document. Above all, it is a party that was founded explicitly to restore economic life as the crisis hit the city hard. Finally, it is a party without shows, unlike street parties such as the carnivals of Rio and Venice, or even the festival of Avignon, which all have a focal central element.

PS : An important characteristic that is specific to the Basque way of partying: it is a walking party. Unlike the Grande Braderie de Lille where you sit in a café and watch the party sitting on the terrace. In Bayonne, we don't sit down, we stand up and go from bar to bar. This is what is referred to in the Basque language as the “txikiteo” or the “poteo” in Spanish with this dimension of random movements of encounters. A second feature is important: since there is no spectacle focusing attention, from the moment we are in the street, we are part of the spectacle. We are even the show! There is no longer any difference between spectator and actor.

PS : Two exceptional elements allow this description. First the narrowness of the old town. The festivals are held in two neighborhoods where 10 inhabitants live year-round, while 000 "festayres" are present instantly. The party becomes a meeting between the crowd and the city. There is a compression effect that will change the way people interact. In a space of one square meter, one can count up to five people. Any movement means body to body passages, without creating conflicts. This is resolved by smiles, exchanges, jokes, little words of apology… We have this very special feeling of being immersed in the crowd in the city. No one fights or insults each other. On the contrary, we enjoy this intense pleasure of being against each other. I saw Indian files of septuagenarians holding each other by the shoulders and laughing like madmen while crossing the compact crowd. We talk to each other at 120 cm between strangers, whereas in an elevator or in public transport, it is the avoidance strategy that predominates. Nobody speaks, nobody moves while waiting for the door to open. On the contrary, here we go. There is also an aesthetic dimension: since the 000s, clothing in white and red has become essential. The crowd dons the dress of "festayre". You have to imagine the city with its traditional half-timbered houses occupied by a crowd in white and red. It is an undifferentiated human tide. There is a dress standardization which also represents a social standardization. And that's very much appreciated.

PS : It is the observation which shows it: with the festivals of Bayonne the crowd is merry. For what ? We're celebrating, it's beautiful, we're going to meet friends, drink together, enjoy life. Second element: the city once again belongs to pedestrians. No scooters, no bicycles, no cars, no scooters… Freedom of movement allows an extraordinary rediscovery of the city. But if I may digress: sociology is usually more interested in negative emotions. The crowd perceives itself as dangerous and murderous, a place where one would become stupefied (in the sense of becoming an animal), one would lose one's civility. Of course Bayonne does not escape the fact that the security teams will be tense for five days, there is a real public safety issue. But beyond this safety, the pleasure is immense. The dynamic of joy is central.

PS : Receiving up to 120 people instantly cannot be improvised. There is an immense work which begins in September which consists in organizing this suction pump which brings the crowd into the city. Then you have to distribute it, give it to eat and then expel it from the streets, in order to clean up the city at five in the morning, and resume the party at 000 am. Remember there is no show. No large entertainment company with an international dimension is present. These parties are organized, paid for and managed locally! The hold of entertainment capitalism does not exist. It is an economy based on three pillars: funding from the town hall (subsidies), significant commercial activity (through restaurants and cafes) and then the contribution of associations (through donations). It is important to mention that the celebrations were launched by an elected official of the city, Benjamin Gomez, Jewish, architect. We are in 9, France is beginning to feel the effects of the 1932 crisis in the United States. And he has this idea that organizing a party will be able to restore an economic dynamic in Bayonne. His work is now a century old and still as vigorous as ever. He was very visionary because he directly coupled the economic question with the festive aspect by asking the question “who pays? ".

PS : That the crowd is not a series of individuals placed next to each other. It is made up of groups. Isolated people are in the minority. Groups of friends, families, colleagues… A phenomenon of coagulation unites these different collectives. There is a way to socialize for fun. The group also protects, when one has drunk too much, he will be taken care of by his family. The group is the first security space of the party. The town hall has understood this very well since it communicates on signs: “We leave together, we return together”. Being in a group for young girls provides protection. It's the positive aspect that allows you to understand that you can have fun in a collective with a feeling of security.

PS : The 2022 party went like the previous ones! The divisive edition was that of 2016 following the Islamist attack of July 14 in Nice. We felt that joy was struggling to manifest itself. While last year the joy unfolded without having to think of dramatic events. The party is not forgetting the world, it is living the world as it is. When the holidays were created in 1932, the front pages of the newspapers of the time were devoted to Hitler's coming to power. In 1936 the festivities were in full swing when the Francoist forces defeated the Republican forces and the first refugee boats from San Sebastian arrived on the French coast. So the party is not necessarily exempt from the tragic dimension of the world. There is this ability, very well demonstrated in Bayonne, to exist despite this dark side of history. The party can take its place in a painful and sad world. In an era as black as it is, that does not prevent the festive moment from arriving. Especially since the sad party also exists, like funerals. It is also in these moments that the sense of the collective is revealed.

PS : If I compare the 2019 edition to the 2022 edition, I don't notice any difference. Same observation at the Grande Braderie de Lille that I know well. If there is a new pattern, it was especially on the occasion of the family celebrations of 2021, when Christmas dinners had to be canceled because one of the participants was reported positive for the antigen test.

PS : The question of screens is interesting and arises at two levels. In Bayonne in the tumult of the party, the screen is absent and does not take over. Unlike the telethon, the party is not watched in front of a screen, which makes it possible to pass from one sequence to another, and to focus attention from time to time on the pledge counter, in order to multiply these last. No screen shows the party to the "festayres"; they don't need it, the party is there, right before their eyes. Moreover, the mobile telephone networks are completely saturated; this does not prevent the "festayres" from taking short films or photos which they post on their personal page or on dedicated sites in order to show the pleasure of the party and to invite their friends to attend. On a second level, one can wonder if the urban party is in a situation of rivalry with the screens and the evenings devoted to its favorite series. For the inhabitants of the city center where the festival takes place, in Bayonne as in Lille, it is unlikely, as the noise level outside is high; and then there are popular festivals, all ages combined, where it is possible to enjoy the atmosphere with friends and neighbors until late in the evening. This is where the action takes place. Outside this perimeter, for people resistant to the atmosphere created by the crowd, the appeal of VOD and series must continue to play its role.