As a punishing heat wave swept through Europe last week, some cultural events had to carry on with the show. The Avignon Festival, one of Europe’s largest theater extravaganzas, was just days from opening. And even as temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the festival’s venues — many of them outdoors — still needed to be prepped, reports The New York Times.
“Within 12 hours, we had adapted,” said Eve Lombart, who has been the festival’s general administrator since 2019. Working hours for technicians building stages and sets were adjusted, with longer breaks in the afternoon; to compensate, technical teams started as early as 6 a.m. at some of the event’s 40 venues.
The swift adjustments were the result, Lombart said, of years of behind-the-scenes effort to adapt the festival to climate change.
For Avignon and other events in the south of France, rising summer temperatures have become an existential threat. Days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit are no longer a rarity, with serious effects on audiences and workers. While air conditioning — less common in Europe than in other parts of the world — has been installed at most indoor venues, crowds typically walk from show to show throughout the day to catch as many productions as possible.
Florent Masse, a Princeton University professor who is the director of the Princeton French Theater Festival, said that conditions had worsened significantly since he first traveled to Avignon, in 2002. Masse noted that on the opening day of this year’s event, the 30-minute walk back to the city center after a performance at La Fabrica, a venue in Avignon’s suburbs, was arduous.
“I can bear it,” he said, “but for someone older or with health issues, it’s going to be difficult.”
Bringing in practical solutions and reducing the event’s carbon footprint were at the top of the priority list for the Portuguese director Tiago Rodrigues when he was appointed as the festival’s director, in 2021. “Because of Avignon’s importance, history and visibility, we have a responsibility to act and to be accountable,” he said in a phone interview last week. “We’re far beyond making great speeches.”
Recent changes include a ban on performances from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., the hottest hours of the day. Rodrigues also set a new rule for international artists, who have long played a significant role in Avignon’s lineups: “If you’re coming from overseas, you have to have other touring dates, either in France or in Europe,” he said, to share the carbon footprint from air travel.
Last year, for example, the festival looked far and wide for partner venues to justify a visit by the Brazilian team of director Carolina Bianchi, who became an overnight sensation with “The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella.” “Carolina was quite unknown, so we had to battle for months to create a tour,” Rodrigues said. “Once we’re passionate about an overseas artist, we work to convince others.”
Rodrigues said initiatives like these had wide support across the French culture sector. The Avignon Festival started tracking its carbon footprint in 2010, and a dedicated internal committee meets to discuss sustainability measures every month.
Read more of this report from The New York Times.