By Catarina Vita
March
From the beginning to late February, the Cote D’Azur — more specifically the city of Menton — transforms from an abandoned summer paradise into an epicenter of tourism. Businesses of every kind come to life with Menton’s Fete du Citron, better known as the Lemon Festival. The city of Menton, currently harboring one of the most significant migrant crises globally, gathers tourists from all over the world around the city’s humble 14.05 kilometers squared area to admire statues made almost entirely out of lemons at the Jardins Biovès, delve into the orchid exposition right across the street in the Palais d’Europe, and walk straight and up the stairs to visit the iconic Basilique de Saint Michel Archange.
Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons, however, hold the true gist of the Lemon Festival: the parades. Including everything from cheerleaders to a Trojan Horse, everyone gathers around Avenue Felix Faure to celebrate the parades, rain or sunshine. This year’s theme was the Paris Olympics, and all statues revolved around that, with Olympic swimmers and wrestlers welcoming tourists that arrive from the train station into Menton. According to France3, Menton was expected to receive 30,000 people for the festival, doubling the city’s population. Similarly to the Olympics itself, the Menton government reinforced security measures during the period of the Lemon Festival. Yearly, the government installs smaller lemon-made sculptures around the city, which usually find themselves empty after a few days of their installation. With the large influx of people in a small city, pickpockets surge. This year, the Menton government aimed to reinforce its security and surveillance measures, both through manpower and security cameras.
France3 reported that 150 national police officers were dedicated to the event, as well as 50 municipal police officers. Surveillance cameras were placed in various locations of the city, especially in the lemon-made statues around the Old Town. Near the Basilique, where such a statue was placed, a big, red sign with white letters contrasted the yellow of the lemons: cette zone est surveillée. Another technology-based effort recently implemented is drone surveillance, also reaffirmed by France3. To access the traditional festival parades, an intricate security check is mandatory. The new metal-detecting device Evolv, similar to ones in airports and museums, was implemented for the attendees of the parade. The official Menton Préfecture website recommended arriving two hours before the parade due to intricate security checks, including bag search.
In an interview for BFM Cote d’Azur, Aurélien Froger, a police officer placed in Menton for the Lemon Festival, recounts the dangers posed during this period, specifically during the parades. He describes two main ones, those caused by crowds and those caused by individuals. The crowds, according to Froger, can cause panic and instability, while the officer was concerned about knife violence with regard to the security threats posed by individuals. “When there is a crowd, there is always a concern,” says Froger. Another police officer described that the security team examined the parade areas before people arrived to ensure that “nothing dangerous” was placed on these premises.
The collective local and national efforts for the Lemon Festival’s success reveal the importance of this period on a macro and micro scale. Evidently, the festival turns the lemons of the Mentonese economy during the winter season into lemonade, reviving chain hotels and small businesses. A small carelessness on the part of security during the festival could cause its collapse and with it, the collapse of Menton and the Cote d’Azur during winter.
Thankfully for businesses and tourism, the 2024 edition of the Fete du Citron, also being the 90th edition of the festival, had surprising numbers. The Menton Préfecture website recorded almost 100,000 spectators to all four parades, 74,000 people in the orchid exposition at Palais d’Europe, and over a million accessors to the official Fete du Citron website. One of the smallest cities in the Cote d’Azur suddenly becomes overcrowded in February, which could lead to a security catastrophe. With security efforts like the ones imposed in this year’s edition of the Lemon Festival, a catastrophe like that could be considered successfully prevented from the lack of reports of serious security threats. Nonetheless, the enjoyment of the Fete du Citron also relies on the integrity of the police force and no police violence, which is not in place in the current migration crisis scenario in the Cote d’Azur. While tourists from all over the world are being protected by the police, for migrants at the Franco-Italian border, French law enforcement can come to threaten their life. Police brutality against migrants are rampant, besides neglect on proper reception and human rights.For years to come, security efforts would best be combined with actions to lower police brutality, at the Italian border and Mentonese streets, so that the city and the festival can be properly appreciated.