Vandalism, stone throwing... A night marred by violence at the Aurillac festival

Stone throwing, barricades, and trash can fires. Violence erupted in Aurillac on the night of Wednesday, August 20th to Thursday, August 21st, the first day of the street theater festival, leaving eight law enforcement officers injured.

The CRS 83, which specializes in riots, was sent on Thursday evening to reinforce the three CRS companies on site, according to a police source, so that the festival could continue peacefully.

On Wednesday evening, on the sidelines of a "red-handed arrest" , "groups of hostile individuals", sometimes masked and hooded, attacked the police, the Cantal prefecture indicated in a press release.

According to witnesses gathered at the scene, tensions rose after the arrest of an individual who had tagged the front of a bank. Around 11:30 p.m., a group of people then clashed with police in a city center square, attacking bus shelters and businesses, throwing projectiles at riot police, and setting fire to trash cans.

Eight police officers were slightly injured, Cantal Prefect Philippe Loos announced at a press conference, but none of the thousands of festival-goers present in the city center.

No arrests or police custody have been made so far, said Aurillac public prosecutor Sandrine Delorme, adding that an investigation was underway to identify the perpetrators of the violence. "This is clearly a group that formed temporarily to cause damage," she said. The rioters also attacked the courthouse grounds, throwing paving stones at them, she said.

"In Aurillac, as everywhere else, the Republic allows freedom to be expressed in creation and not in destruction," declared Prefect Philippe Loos.

The provisional report "reports damage to around ten shop windows and street furniture," the prefecture said, also mentioning "several fires in rubbish bins, brought under control by firefighters protected by the police."

The mayor of Aurillac, Pierre Mathonier (PS), estimated the damage to the public highway at between €20,000 and €30,000. "It is not normal to use this festival as a platform for unacceptable radical political demands," he told the press, expressing his desire for "this festival to continue."

According to a police source, the group of rioters consisted of 300 people who unsealed the paving stones to throw them at the police. The prefecture estimated that this number was more modest, without providing further details. The CRS responded with tear gas, eventually pushing the most violent groups back to the adjacent streets during the night, with the clashes ending around 3:30 a.m., according to a police source.

"This violence has nothing to do with our project, whether artistic, cultural or social," and the festival is the "victim," assured Frédéric Rémy, director of the festival. The international street theater festival welcomes 3,000 artists and around 180,000 spectators until Saturday for its 38th edition.

In 2023, on the fringes of the festival and following a demonstration in support of a woman prosecuted for "indecent exposure" after walking around topless, demonstrators caused damage. French flags were taken down, individuals entered the courthouse and damaged the public area, and a fire was quickly contained. Then-Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti visited the scene and estimated the damage at €250,000.