Around 10,000 people working in the cultural and entertainment sectors in France have staged a street protest in Paris against the continued Covid-related closure of venues including theatres, concert halls, cinemas and museums. Further protests were held across the country, including in Marseilles, Lyon, Nantes and Strasbourg.
Cultural venues closed at the end of October as part of measures to curtail a second wave of the pandemic and were due to reopen this week in line with French government plans for the gradual lifting of the lockdown. This strategy has been abandoned and these venues will now remain closed until 7 January the earliest.
The sector's professional bodies have launched a legal challenge to the closures on the grounds of protecting "fundamental liberties” - an action already taken by catering workers and the ski industry.