Alcohol at Agrosalon: there will be no ethyl coma in 2024 compared to 82 last year

A glass of beer on one stand, another of wine on another, liquor on a third… For a long time, the Agricultural Show was an arena of excessive drinking. Especially last year, when the event was accompanied by fights and other vomiting. But for the 2024 competition, which ends this Sunday, organizers have addressed the issue.

Event director Arnaud Lemoine explains in Ouest-France columns that he “unfolded a major battle plan” to deal with these situations and “scenes that were no longer within the purview of the party.” Traders, both inside and outside the exhibition center (15th century), expressed their dissent over the negligence on the exhibition shelves, where exhibitors offered countless alcoholic drinks, proof of their know-how.

New code of conduct

Therefore, several instruments were put into place: “ quenches thirst were present to discuss the relationship with alcohol, water points were installed and we applied a more repressive policy to the bistro owners,” explains Arnaud Lemoine, clarifying that only one kiosk was closed this year due to non-compliance with the rules.

There is also a code of conduct, as well as a visitor and participant card, which, in particular, mentions a ban on entering the Exhibition while intoxicated or an instruction to stop “serving alcohol to people who are visibly intoxicated.” And at the end of the 2024 edition, despite a few exceptions, “there are results,” praises Arnaud Lemoine. The event ended without an alcohol coma, he said, “compared to 82 last year.”

The Agricultural Show attracted 603,652 visitors for its 60th edition, event organizers said, with a whirlwind visit from the head of state as well as politicians from all sides at the height of the agricultural crisis. Attendance was down slightly (-2%) compared to last year, when 615,204 visitors were recorded.

International Agricultural Exhibition (SIA) President Jean-Luc Poulin spoke of a “challenging edition, especially at the beginning of the exhibition”, with a delayed opening on Saturday due to the excesses surrounding the visit of Emmanuel Macron, and of the popular Festival always welcomed by the public, which “came in large numbers » meet with farmers.