This Sunday, March 17, the classic carnival of the Plaine de Marseille, overlooking the Place Jean Jaurès, straddling the 1st, 5th and 6th arrondissements of Marseille, at around 2:30 p. m. Several thousand carnival goers, 9,000 according to the police, gathered and strolled around. through the streets of the community for this 24th edition. This year, the theme is the “Olympic Phlemma” in reference to the celebration of the Olympic Games in France.
“The anagram of the Olympiad is polyamide,” says a carnival girl holding a sign with the symbol O2NHO, whose carbon is used in the composition. “It’s bad for the environment and it’s bad for warming. “
A little more: “drunken sailors” are “specialized in small flames and aim for the smallest llama, even if it is well received in the water,” says the carnival girl dressed all in red and with a yellow mask in her mouth. Children serve non-alcoholic beverages to other people parading under the hot mid-March sun in the Phocaean city.
To the rhythm of the drums, choreographies are improvised and the floats advance.
A little further on, a sign announces the color: “the last one directly (doping post). “Men in costumes simulate injections with fruit juice and inject the nectar into the mouths of passersby, shouting “It’s for the public hospital. “
“My daughter wanted to dress up, we came here as tourists for the family and the party,” some simply came to enjoy the atmosphere.
Another extra stand shows a ship on fire: “The Olympics will set Marseille on fire,” says the carnival goer, referring to the “mess this will cause in the city. “
“The J is the S, the Olympics are the Hess,” says a carnival attendee dressed as an Olympic flame.
Creativity is varied and varied, the theme is respected.
Another carnival-goer arrives with the same slogan written on his sign: “Hess in Arabic means misery, the Olympics make other people more miserable, public money is needed for personal funds. But it’s nothing new, it’s the same in every “And every Olympics. Whereas July doesn’t ruin us. “
Caramantran is accused of all evils and has been exacted the highest punishment. Carnival is an opportunity to say goodbye to winter and celebrate it with the circle of family and friends.
A carnival under heavy surveillance: several orders have been given to the excesses of last year when the demonstration gathered some 9,000 more people. The party had degenerated by the afternoon. 25 policemen were injured and another 15 people were arrested. A situation that the new prefect of police, Pierre-Edouard Colliex, needs to face at all costs.
Festival-goers will be required to return home from 6:30 p. m. After that, the carnival will be banned and violators will face a fine of 135 euros. From 10:00 a. m. , the sale of alcoholic beverages to take away or in glass boxes is also prohibited in the vicinity of Place Jean Jaurès.
The decree also prohibits, from Saturday at 12:00 noon, the carrying and shipment of firearms of all categories, ammunition and elements that may constitute a weapon at the destination and “pyrotechnic articles or that can be used as such. “Monday.