“The latest announcements from Japan regarding the hosting of the Olympic Games, the border closures outside the European Union, are part of the conditions which make it impossible to hold the festival this year”, explain the organizers. Thomas Sirdey, one of the co-founders of the festival, estimated that the requirements (gauge of 5,000 people outdoors, distance of two meters between seats) did not allow for a satisfactory edition. “Japan Expo attracts people from all over France and even from Europe, and from Japan of course. It is normally 70,000 people per day indoors, 250,000 visitors in total, and a lot of mixing and meetings. An edition in degraded conditions was not the right formula “, he stressed.
Japan Expo intends to hold its 2022 editions in Marseille (Parc Chanot) in February and in Paris (Villepinte Exhibition Center, in Seine-Saint-Denis).
Japan Expo is independent, does not receive subsidies, neither from France, nor from Japan. The only revenues are those generated by the sale of tickets and stands. Despite state aid, the situation is more than difficult for Japan Expo.
“Behind the festival, it is a company, Sefa Event, which is lucky to have a certain number of state aid (partial activity and solidarity fund), and which was able to find the cash that it lacked. through a loan guaranteed by the State “, say the organizers. “Even if we have reduced the costs of the company as much as possible, these aids do not allow us to cover them completely. These costs have swallowed up our savings and each month, the remainder of the loan is eating away a little more money. “
Source site www.francetvinfo.fr
