The 2022 International Agricultural Show will be the “Reunion Show”. Its amputation in 2020 and its postponement in 2021 have impacted all those who, in one way or another, participate in it. However, it should also be called “Salon des responsibilities”, in view of the health constraints that will be ours, and which will still punctuate its progress. However, thanks to hard work and a common desire to brave bad weather, the show is taking place! Its success is then in everyone’s hands, since it is indeed a collective responsibility that we are talking about. Government, police headquarters, organizers, exhibitors, farmers, visitors… We will all have a role to play to make this edition a success. It is in compliance with the instructions and the support of the participants that we will offer the big family that is agriculture to return to the front of the stage.
The challenge is daunting because it is indeed the largest French show, a real platform for our country’s know-how, a place of innovation and development, a place of all possibilities for the promotion of regions and agricultural production. , educational center…
For nine days, all the cameras and all the minds are turned towards the agricultural world and its hopes. Also, for the very first time, the Show will close with an event that promises to be spectacular: a great transhumance on the Champs-Elysées! Indeed, on Sunday March 6, the cobblestones of the most beautiful avenue in the world will see more than 2,022 sheep, cattle and horse teams parade, surrounded by 350 dancers, singers and circus performers. This parade is orchestrated by the Béarn Pyrénées which becomes, for the occasion, spokesperson for the other transhumant French massifs (Alps, Massif Central, Vosges, Jura and Corsica). The kick-off will therefore be given by the good King Henri IV, who will pave the way for the shepherds and shepherdesses who have come to deliver the message of a positive rurality, which coexists with modernity and sustainable development. A real ode to pastoralism will rise from the streets of Paris, with animals “outside the walls”, to delight young and old. With the Folies Béarnaises, it is the peasant universe that will walk to meet the capital!
Of course, we do not forget that we are in a presidential election year and it is with pleasure that we welcome all candidates. Strolling in the living room (or alongside the herds…) is a way of tracing one’s political furrow and grasping the issues of an entire sector… If some make fun of this diplomatic parade, we want to see it as a good proof of consideration .
In a country that doubts and regularly expresses its anxieties, the International Agricultural Show and the Folies Béarnaises connect us to the earth, to what feeds us, to this fragile balance that unites us and surpasses us. It will be a real moment, a moment of pride, a bridge between the generations of yesterday, today and tomorrow. And if that seems a little excessive to you, we invite you to come and see for yourself… The exemplary professionalism of all those who work, including behind the scenes, to make the world’s largest agricultural show legendary, makes it possible to rise to the challenge of this unusual year. So the 2022 show will be special, of course, but it will be beautiful and festive, for sure! And above all, it will end in majesty…
*By Jean-Luc Poulain, president of the International Agricultural Show and Jacques Pédehontaà, organizer of the Folies Béarnaises, Transhumances on the Champs-Elysées
