After the resounding success of the annual Fête de la Musique national musical party, the trend of having a day/week/month/year to celebrate everything from grandmothers to citizenship hasn't missed a beat in France. Now it's cyberspace, with the first Fête de l'Internet kicking off yesterday from a dark Renault showroom on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. As many as 500 officially sanctioned events, and a growing number of personal initiatives, will take place all over the country - and its online shadow - between Friday and Saturday.
As the days passed before the Fête, it seemed that the old French adage "when in doubt, throw a party" finally silenced the few dissenters who railed against the commercial focus for the event - sponsored by an impressive array of corporate biggies, including IBM, Alcatel, and Compaq - as well as the band-rallying of the government.
Although this might have been a concern for Pierre de la Coste, of hypertext-literature promoters Melusine, his company has been addressing this issue on the steering committee since day one. Melusine has pushed for the cultural, artistic, and intellectual aspects to offset the purely commercial dimension of the festival, he says.
"Our message is that the question of content is essential for the development of Internet in France," de la Coste says, adding that he believes "this content must be Internet specific."
Other partners on the committee seem to see the Fête as an opportunity for the widespread raising of awareness, rather than a cutting-edge revolution on the march.
"We do not expect to augment the number of connected homes as a result of this," explained a festival committee spokeswoman. "We just want to show that the Internet can be useful and close to everyone."
A downsized goal, then, and one echoed by Patrice Martin-Lalande, National Assembly deputy and author of a recent report on the subject, who will "demonstrate to my fellow [deputies] the possibilities we have, nomads that we are, to work with the Internet and be present at once in Paris and in our elective communities." Martin-Lalande is currently among the very few representatives proudly sporting a "mèl" (the government-approved French translation of the foreign "email") address on the assembly's site.
The festival falls concurrently with both the Week of Francophony and the annual book fair (as well as good old natural springtime). This is an auspicious coincidence of events for Minister of Culture Catherine Trautmann, who will inaugurate all three planned events in a cyber-saturated schedule.
The daily makers of the French Internet, as well as providers and design teams, are represented in many of the festival's projects. Service provider easynet, for instance, set up the Global Gallery Moulin Joly, where school kids can relay the wild world of site construction to other schools around the world with webcams.
The few cybercafes of Paris that still remain in business will be buzzing with activity particularly at the Web bar where discussions and electronic art performances will be closely meshed with the usual beer and wine.
If nothing else raises interest, there's always the usual French formula for throwing a fête: Toss a few colored balloons around, and sing a corny novelty song. This event's unfortunate ditty: "When your memory's saturated, clean up your hard drive on a trip to the future!"
