How can we reconcile the Music Festival, celebrated since 1982 on the day of the summer solstice, and extreme temperatures? The event promises to be seriously disrupted by the heatwave on Sunday June 21, 2026, particularly in the 35 departments placed on red alert, a record, where alcohol consumption will be prohibited. In total, some 53 million French people are affected by red alerts, which affect 35 departments, and orange alerts, declared in 45 other departments.
Revised and supervised parties
From Auch to Nanterre via Châteauroux, a number of towns have canceled the concerts planned for the 45th Music Festival. Without going that far, local authorities have postponed the start of the festivities until the end of the day, when temperatures should drop a little. It will be at 7:00 p.m. in Gironde, where the prefect has canceled all other “outside, sporting, festive and cultural events”.
In Paris, as in Lyon or Strasbourg, the municipality has also chosen to maintain the event. In order to “be able to order it and supervise it rather than endure it”, explained the PS mayor of the capital, Emmanuel Grégoire. In Paris and its surrounding area, 4,800 police officers and gendarmes as well as 2,500 firefighters will be mobilized for the party, according to the Paris police headquarters. Processions will be prohibited on the “low quays” to “avoid any risk of falling into the Seine”.
The Minister of Culture Catherine Pgard left the decision on Saturday to the prefectures and municipalities to maintain or cancel the Music Festival festivities. “We must study things on a case-by-case basis, locations on a case-by-case basis,” and “refer to the competent services,” namely the prefectures and municipalities, according to her.
“But I believe that indeed, we must be extremely vigilant,” added Catherine Pgard, who was to participate at 11:00 a.m. in a meeting of the interministerial crisis unit of the Ministry of the Interior around Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez assured Friday that there would be “no general questioning” of the festivities planned for the Fête de la Musique, even though several cities ultimately canceled them.
Misters, parasols and fans
Catherine Pgard specified that the concert organized by the Ministry of Culture at the Palais Royal, in Paris, was being maintained “for the moment”. “We are doing everything to ensure that it happens in good conditions: we are adding parasols, misters, we will distribute fans…”, according to her. The National Jazz Orchestra, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a tribute to Carla Bley and Thomas Dutronc, should therefore perform at the Palais Royal.
To avoid discomfort as much as possible but also disturbances to public order, the consumption of alcohol will be prohibited on public roads in the departments in heatwave red alert, as well as in a few others in orange. And the “instruction” was given not to offer them in events organized by the State, announced the government, which activated an interministerial crisis unit.
Among the concerts planned in Paris, that of La France insoumise, which chose to make it a political event. Its “Anti-racist Music Festival” invited artists, such as Leo SVR and 2L, to Place de la République, known for their positions committed to the left. The courts on Friday suspended the decision of the police chief to ban this concert, considering that “the risks of disturbances to public order” that he had invoked “were not sufficiently justified”.
A new Mozart in the spotlight on Radio France
More consensual will be the concert given by two musicians from the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, who will play for the first time the unpublished work of Mozart which has just been discovered at the National Library of France.
This June 21, the seven pieces for flute and harp which appear in the maestro’s found notebook will be played for the first time by Mathilde Caldérini (flute) and Nicolas Tulliez (harp). The two musicians from the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra will perform them in front of an audience of guests at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. These new pieces will be available to discover without heatstroke from Monday June 22 on France Musique which will broadcast the concert on its airwaves.
