Information and communication of festivals: Media and institutional agencies in the face of discursive construction of festive rituals

« Narapoia » is the name of a condition in which a person thinks that everyone is conspiring to help and benefit her. This « constructive deception », formulated by Boris Cyrulnik in the seventies, could describe the merrymaker's state of mind. By offering us the promise of a benevolent atmosphere, celebration allows us to move away from the suspicion and reversibility that supposedly underlie all relationships between individuals, especially in big cities such as Paris. The 2003 heatwave caused a great many deaths, primarily among the elderly. This tragedy confronted the French authorities and population with the problem of isolation in big cities. The individualism that had previously been seen as a « little quirk » of progress and modernity henceforth became a scourge to be eradicated. Created in 1999 on the initiative of Atanase Périfan - a young UMP councilor of Macedonian descent, the aim of the Fête des Voisins is to gather people from the same building and/or neighborhood together for drinks and a buffet meal. The Immeubles en Fêtes association's homepage, posters announcing the event, Atanase Périfan's book sharing his personal experience as the founder, press articles and televised reports all serve to reinforce the image of an initiative that is not only cheerful and friendly, but also equally decisive. The premise - or even the promise - of the Fête des Voisins therefore falls more within the realm of the useful than the pleasurable. The image of the large table as broadcast by the media will become the metaphor for the shared space of the Republic, along with the values and codes that underpin it. The deliberately light-hearted and confident tone of the event will be a way to reach out to those who think of themselves as being on the margins of society. « Sense of belonging » and « feeling of exclusion » could be considered as inner geographies, psychological constructs that the Dionysiac experience of hospitality and joy will temporarily suspend. From the Fête des Voisins to the more subversive parties organized by Parisian clubs such as Le Point Ephémère or Glazart, it is always a matter of restoring the individual to a place of beneficial availability and vulnerability through which integration into a group becomes possible. This may take the calm and sensible form of friendship and citizenship (Fête des Voisins) or find a more intense and burning expression in the raptures of love (Le Point Ephémère, Glazart).