Inter-LGBT, organizer of the capital’s Pride march, “takes note” of the Paris police prefecture’s decision to cancel the event planned for this Saturday, June 27 due to the heatwave. The association announces to têtu that it will now work on a Pride in September.
Paris Pride, victim of the heatwave. Inter-LGBT announced on Friday that it would “take note of the decision of the prefecture” of police, which requested the cancellation of the demonstration that was to take place this Saturday, June 27, from 1 p.m., while Météo France still forecasts a temperature of 35°C in the capital after a week of an exceptional heatwave. Canceled for this Pride month, the march could nevertheless take place at the end of summer: “We voted in the board of directors the principle of a postponement to September”, says to têtu Alexandre Schon, co-president of the inter-associative organizer of the Paris march.
Until this Friday morning, however, Inter-LGBT did not plan to cancel the event. Speaking to têtu, Alexandre Schon recalls that the community is used to marching in the heat, Paris Pride traditionally taking place on the last Saturday of June. The organization had prepared as well: “Mobilization of more than 50 first responders, use of four ambulances, two water tankers and a misting system covering six meters, a cooled and equipped medical station”, had listed the day before Anouk Veyret, co-president of the Inter-LGBT, during the presentation of the setup to the press. “We know how to march in 39°C and we did our part of the work”, summarizes Alexandre Schon, while pointing to “the unpreparedness and the amateurism of the State which does not know how to handle a heatwave”.
Cancellation of Solidays and the Lyon Pride
But in the morning, the Paris police prefecture confirms in a press release having asked the organizers to cancel the event. “Despite the adaptations granted by the organizers and their efforts to increase their internal capacity for first aid, the turnout of several hundred thousand people at these events will create a high risk of overloading a health service already mobilized to its limits”, justifies the prefecture. And adds: “If they do not consent, the Police Prefect will ban them by order.” The Inter-LGBT then resigns itself to not opposing it. “Although confident in its strengthened system and its experience, the inter-associative writes on Instagram that it does not want “to take any risk for public health“.
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The request for cancellation from the prefecture also concerns the Solidays festival, which was to run from Friday evening to Sunday at the Longchamp racecourse, in the Bois de Boulogne, to the west of Paris. The festival organizers, who fund the Solidarité Sida association, informed volunteers that they would comply with the prefecture’s decision. Scheduled for Saturday, Lyon Pride organized by the Collectif fierté en lutte (CFL) is also postponed to September due to weather conditions.
