La Fête in FINE form

Annual cultural festival is back with a new time period, and more events than ever.

Last May, not long after we ran a preview article saying that “La Fête” will occupy the Ratchaprasong intersection, with an outdoors photography exhibition, we received an email, with the mouth in the logo turning upside down expressing sadness, informing that it was postponed to a further period. Alright, now we know that le rouge will protest there for a maximum of two hours, so that leaves enough time for les bleus.

At the press conference last Thursday (13^th January), H.E. Mr. Gildas Le Lidec, ambassador of France to Thailand, officially announced that “La Fête 2011”, organized by the French Embassy and Alliance Francaise, will take place from February 9 to April 10 with more events in more venues than scheduled last year. And the festival will continue, in years to come, in this generally dry time period. And so the mouth in the logo has turned itself upside smiling to us again.

Cultural attaché Stéphane Négrin adds, in our exclusive interview, “To be honest, French artists don’t know much about the political situation in Thailand—but we do. We didn’t move the schedule of ‘La Fête’ [mainly] because of the political turmoil of course. The main reason is that the new ambassador was thinking maybe a dry season was better for cultural activities. I think he’s right: I feel more comfortable taking taxi and BTS to the theatre when it’s not raining here.”

“We just hope that the political situation will be positive and that this festival can run from the beginning to the end. We know that protests are still going on. Politics is very important in everyday life of course, but culture is important too. I know more and more Thai people are involved in politics but they are in culture too, and so we need to have both.”

Négrin and his small team, comprising eight members from the French Embassy and Alliance Francaise, have been successful in bringing back most of the events scheduled for last year’s postponed festival, plus more. This he credits to the addition of this year’s budget to the remainder of last year’s.

“It’s also because after four years here [as French cultural attaché] I feel more comfortable with the budget and sponsorship, and with my team who’ve been organizing the festival for four years now, we’re more professional and know one another better so everything goes faster. A problem is the number of people in our team—organizing a big and expensive event takes as equal amount of time as a small and cheap one. We can’t do more than this but we can do differently, and, I hope, better.”

He gives an example—a free outdoors screening of award-winning films, and audience’s favourites, “Amelie” and “Monrak Transistor” at Museum Siam on Valentine’s day.

“For the first time ‘La Fête’ is in February, there’s Valentine’s day, and we have to do something a little different because we’re ‘La Fête’. In the idea, it’s the concept of anti-Valentine’s day [‘s commercial aspect]—you don’t have to book, to pay, or to be lovers to attend this cinema picnic. And this doesn’t cost more than rental of the movies.”

Another original project that very well captures the spirit of “La Fête” is Tuk Tuk 26, in which object theatre troupe Companie Á will use the world-famous vehicle as their stage and travel to perform at various venues from Hua Lamphong Station to an orphanage and universities.

And this has been initiated by the French cultural attaché himself, who’s often seen with French-design spectacles, shirts and neck ties, plus an astonishing motorcycle helmet—truly French-Thai.

“Even if maybe we have only 20 or 100 audiences [in each Tuk Tuk 26 performance], in comparison to 2,000 people at the Thailand Cultural Centre [for the symphony concert, the festival’s closing event], it makes sense in terms of our programming. ‘La Fête’ is not only a popular or hi-so festival, but it’s for everybody. It’s exciting to organize both, and I hope it’s exciting for everybody. I’m not sure it’s the same group of audiences, but who cares? French people promote cultural diversity, and this is it.”

Since its inception in 2004, “La Fête” has stood out among its counterparts in Thailand as the only multi-genre and multi-venue cultural festival, with both ticketed and free-admission events.

Négrin, under whose vision the festival has shown its strong contemporary signature and grown significantly in scale, popularity and quality, notes, “An amazing city like Bangkok must have its own international arts festival. But of course artists need revenues, and so you can’t expect them to be here just to be in nice hotels. A big budget is necessary and if your government is not ready, maybe you can ask for support from your major food and beverage companies, for example. Some people say that audiences here are not ready, but audiences need to be educated. In the first few years, you may have more invited audiences than paying ones, but it’ll get better.”

“In Singapore and Taipei, for example, my colleagues don’t have to organize a festival like this. They recommend French companies to the local organizers of international arts festivals there and provide administrative, and partial, not full, financial support. If maybe in the near future, Bangkok, or Thailand, hosts its own international arts festival, I think it’s time to stop ‘La Fête’.”

For now, it’s time to revisit familiar venues where we enjoyed the past “La Fête” events.

For example, there will be three fashion photography exhibitions at BACC.

Outdoors photography exhibition “Portraits of Asia” will kick off the festival’s at Central World Square on Wednesday 9th February.

The same venue will also host a free concert at a later date.

Another outdoors photography exhibition “The Parisian Pedestrian” will be at Alliance Francaise Bangkok on Sathorn Road.

French Film Festival will return to SF World.

Many music, dance and mime performances are scheduld for Patravadi Theatre and Aksra Theatre.

And as usual, a BSO concert, with a French conductor and a mezzo-soprano star, will close the festival at Thailand Cultural Centre's Main Hall.

Plus, this year’s festival has new venues like Museum Siam, which will also host another photography exhibition “Fluorescent People”.

Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts is teh city's newest theatre and that's where ice-juggling performance P.P.P. and object theatre Mauvaise Graine will be held.

Also, the festival is going beyond Bangkok—there’ll be an intercultural dance and music performance and workshop at Vic Hua Hin, a concert in Phuket, and film festivals in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Koh Samui and Pattaya.

And so, it’s that time of year again when my dog gives me an odd look that reads “Excuse me, do you live here?” almost every late evening when I get back home after an event at my favourite festival in Thailand.

“La Fête” is from February 9 to April 10, at various venues. There are many free events, and all are invited. For the ticketed ones, book at Thaiticketmajor. Student tickets are only Bt 100, so bring your ID. All details are at www.LaFete-Bangkok.com, and also on facebook.

Special thanks to all members of “La Fête” team for kind assistance.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in THE NATION on Friday 21st January, 2011

photos courtesy of La Fête