Rundale

Ellen Howley

Having heard about France’s largest left-wing political gathering, La Fête de l’Humanité (or Fête de l’Huma as it’s colloquially known), for years, I had the opportunity to attend the 2026 edition of the three-day festival. Between 11-13 September, 570,000 people attended the festival organised by l’Humanité, the newspaper founded by socialist leader Jean Jaurès in 1904.

The annual Fête de l’Huma began in 1930 and is a political and cultural festival offering a diverse programme of talks and debates, alongside performances from major French and international musical acts. Since 2022, Airbase 217 near Brétigny-sur-Orge around 30km from Paris has played host to the immense festival. It seemed to me a paradox to hold such a gathering of France’s left-wing on a military base, and the route to the entrance gates reminded participants that photography of the base was prohibited. On Saturday, I noticed some personnel observing festival goers as they headed in, but that was as far as any visible tension went, and for the most part, they were ignored by the exuberant crowds.

The festival offers both day passes and camping options and pricewise, it is quite accessible with three-day tickets ranging from €55-70, depending on how early you purchase them. For those with the day passes, Fête de l’Huma is accessible via two of Paris’ regional train lines, with shuttle busses organised at the respective stops to bring attendees to the festival. Although it was a long journey, this was extremely well organised, clearly supported by the public transport provider RATP and volunteers. Such infrastructure is essential to a festival with over half a million attendees.

Once through the entrance gates, you discover a village in and of itself with multiple streets named after figures such as Nelson Mandela, Rosa Luxemburg, Che Guevara, and Bobby Sands. The marquees that line these streets serve food and drink and offer their own programme of events from talks and debates to gigs and, much to my delight, lots of karaoke opportunities. They are overwhelmingly run by volunteers from regional branches of the French Communist Party (PCF), but there is a strong presence from unions, activist groups, other political parties such as the Socialist Party (PS) and green party groupings.

There are also some larger central, themed marquees such as a book fair, a village for independent media, and a scientific and digital tent. At the far end from where I entered was the “Village du Monde” (World Village), a specific area dedicated to international tents, including one supported by Sinn Féin that was selling beer and tee-shirts.

If this sounds a bit overwhelming, it’s because it was. I spent about four hours wandering around on the Friday, dipping into different stands, flipping through books, getting a beer and trying some of the regional foods of a few tents and I hadn’t even been to the Village du Monde yet. The atmosphere was one of excitement and joy, helped by good weather. The mainly younger crowd were primarily there to faire la fête as the French would have it, or party, as we might say.

Politics and Culture

There was a lively atmosphere of engagement and enjoyment across the festival, although many people were clearly more interested in the fête side than the political one. Some talks were meagrely attended, while those belting out classics in the karaoke tents seemed much more enthusiastic about their endeavour. But going to such a gathering means being surrounded by ideas of equality, peace, freedom and justice. It is how people, especially young people, might be encouraged to become activists or at least develop an interest in politics. Having fun does not prevent this; it can even encourage it. People took stickers, wore “Tax the Rich” tee-shirts and chanted anti-fascist slogans, even if they weren’t attending live readings of Marx’s Capital.

In this way, it is a real mixture of politics and culture, something particularly noted by Friday night’s headline act, Kneecap, who called Fête de l’Huma “a testament to music and culture and decolonisation” and lamented that “we don’t have festivals like this in Ireland” because “the people at the top are telling us to separate music and politics.” Their set was an example of solidarity in action as they handed the mic over to a Palestinian woman organising in France to make her plea for support. They not only spoke about Palestine but let Palestinians speak for themselves. The band also called on the crowd to chant “Siamo tutti antifascisti” (“we are all anti-fascists” in Italian), a slogan often heard at left-wing rallies in France.

Indeed, Palestine and anti-fascism seemed two uniting principles of the festival, despite the divisions that exist on the French left. In 2027, France will elect a new president, and a recent poll suggests that Marine Le Pen of the far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) is the front runner for the role with around 37-38% of the vote. Despite this, the left is proposing multiple candidates, likely to split votes. Although, as one festival goer told me, the numbers on the left don’t add up to a win, even with a unifying candidate. He was matter-of-fact but still despondent, markedly so in such a hopeful setting.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the French Left

Nevertheless, Saturday saw two declared candidates deliver speeches. The first was Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of La France Insomise, and the strongest left prospect in the elections, with the same survey putting him at 18%. Speaking from his own party’s tent at 4pm on Saturday afternoon, Mélenchon drew a huge crowd of mainly young people and spoke for 80 minutes, outlining his programme. He is an impressive orator. He had notes but ostensibly never used them, easily citing figures on the increase in poverty in France alongside a growth in the number of billionaires in the country. He was often Marxist in his outlook, talking about the free market and workers’ rights. There was a clear focus on the environment, given France’s summer of unrelenting heatwaves, while also decrying the price of gas.

The crowd chanted, clapped and booed as appropriate (current president Emmanuel Marcon was often the target of these boos). Hundreds wore Mélenchon jerseys (both at the speech and around the festival more generally) and stood under the direct and very hot sun for the duration. The atmosphere around Mélenchon in ways recalls Catherine Connelly’s successful Presidential campaign. She likewise mobilised the youth vote around issues such as climate and Palestine, while her personality came through in moments like the viral keepy-uppy video.

However, whereas Connelly emerged as the left candidate relatively soon in the race, JLM, as he is sometimes known, has also drawn the ire on the Left in France. One man, despite a copious number of pints, assured me he would never vote for Mélenchon, with a clarity that did not quite fit his state. As another attendee told me, Mélenchon has often rejected and denounced comrades on the Left to the point of offence, making it difficult for some to consider voting for him.

Directly after this the Communist Party candidate, Fabien Roussel, spoke from the festival’s main stage, named after Angela Davis. This was the clearest indication that the FCP was in the majority for the organisation of Fête de l’Huma. The crowd for Mélenchon completely blocked the streets and he certainly felt like the more inspiring candidate who could have filled the pitch, whereas the crowd for Roussel felt meagre in comparison, particularly in such a large setting. This was despite almost every tent at the festival advertising his speech.

Roussel echoed many of Mélanchon’s points with environment also a feature of his plan. He was more revolutionary in his language and was flanked by a large team from one side of the stage to the other. He did not command the same presence as Mélanchon, however, and on the whole, the crowd was an older demographic. He was due to speak for 40 mins, with English reggae band UB40 scheduled to play directly after him, but he ran over. I heard one attendee wish he’d hurry up because she wanted to dance. Politico polls have put Roussel at 2-3%.

l’Humanité After Fête de l’Humanité

The festival was mainly well-run, although takes place over a large space, so I’m not sure if it is the most accessible of sites. However, the thing that struck most festival-goers, myself included, was the dust. The sun shone through a constant haze of dust from the ground, disturbed by the thousands of people walking and making it difficult to orientate yourself at times. Some people covered their mouth and nose with a scarf when walking around and online it was being called Fête de la Poussière (The Dust Festival). In the days following the festival, Instagram videos (although generally good natured) showed attendees wiping dust from the skin and hair. L’Humanité’s Monday edition referenced the dust in the front-page headline.

I had the suspicion that the drought caused by France’s several heatwaves exacerbated these conditions. The paper itself confirmed that it was particularly bad this year because of the effects that climate change is having on the environment. In that sense, it was reassuring to see the climate emergency at the centre of many talks.

Nevertheless, attending Fête de l’Humanité was an enjoyable and engaging experience. I am far from an expert of the politics of France and had the opportunity to learn a lot. I spoke to people for whom the festival is an annual family event, even if there are political disagreements within that family; I watched Guadeloupean dancers draw crowds of people; I witnessed people queuing up to have a man dressed as a priest make them confess their sins and then “baptise” them with a glass of sauvignon blanc poured directly into their mouth via a pipette. All life was on offer.

It is perhaps difficult to see a similarly large festival that brings a strong political programme together with the cultural aspect taking place in Ireland. However, the same concerns and enthusiasm exists in a more dispersed way with gigs, like those of Kneecap, CMAT, Fontaines D.C. and more, key sites of political engagement. It was notable that Irish band, Beoga, were among the first to withdraw from Ed Sheeran’s tour when Macklemore was removed following pro-Palestinian remarks.

In the weeks following the festival, secondary school students began a series of protests centred on educational issues such as unfair timetabling practices, lack of teachers, and poor infrastructure from lack of chairs for students to crumbling school buildings. Schools’ unpreparedness for the 40°C heatwaves has also been a recurring complaint. While the blockades began in Paris’ poorer suburbs in the main, they inspired actions of solidarity in schools across the class divide, partly because young people are genuinely concerned about the possibility of good lives into the future. These protests spread into many sectors with university students, unions and workers adding their voices to these declarations of inequality. The police response has been particularly violent: a 15-year-old had his hand blown off, while a 16-year-old lost the use of his eye, among other reported injuries.

October 17 saw up to 800,000 people protesting in France as a sense of general discontent grows. Images of destruction across French cities were the most widespread but the majority of protests were peaceful, with an atmosphere much more akin to a day at Fête de l’Humanité. The police response was again brutal and tear gas was used regularly against predominantly young crowds.

The events of the previous number of weeks have been read as the result of ten years of Macronisme, a series of political decisions under the current French President (roundly critiqued at Fête de l’Humanité) that has, among other things, expanded police powers and use of weapons, while insufficiently funding education, health and other social supports. For his part, Marcon, in a speech to the nation on October 18, failed to address protesters’ concerns and did little to calm tensions that look likely to continue.