‘Good Times, Bad Times’: Hellfest in the days of COVID-19

Abstract

In France, the pandemic caused by the spread of the coronavirus led to a general lockdown, under the decree of 16 March 2020. Upcoming summer festivals were cancelled in April. What, then, was to be done? This article seeks to show two things. Firstly, Hellfest faced this external shock by interacting with various parties involved, located at various places in the production chain (insurers, state, festival-goers holding entry tickets, etc.). This article also describes how Hellfest relied on the context to publicize the festival through the tools it had begun to develop in the years preceding the pandemic and that were still available, audio-visual recording and merchandising, and also through advertising of the project of a gigantic future double edition. We can then estimate that contrary to what most observers believe in 2020, the period of the pandemic has rather strengthened the event than weakened it.