France bans alcohol at music festival events under heat alert

Alcohol was pulled from Fête de la Musique celebrations in France as a record heat wave forced authorities to treat a beloved night of street music like a public-health drill. In departments under a red heatwave alert, prefects were told to issue decrees banning alcohol in public spaces, and officials running state events were instructed not to serve it. The government said the goal was to preserve emergency and healthcare services so medical staff could focus on the most vulnerable.

The restriction landed on one of France’s most visible cultural rituals. Fête de la Musique, first launched in 1982 by the Culture Ministry, fills streets, squares and parks with amateur and professional musicians and has since spread to five continents. What is usually a free, open-air celebration became, under extreme heat, a test of how far public authorities are willing to redesign civic life to reduce dehydration, crowd-related medical emergencies and other risks.

The weather threat was severe enough to match the scale of the response. Météo-France placed 35 departments under the highest warning level, and more than three-quarters of mainland France’s population was expected to be affected, with 45 other departments under orange alert. Forecasters warned temperatures could climb to 39C or 40C in many places, with some areas reaching 41C, and Paris could top 40C on a June day for the first time. Parks in Paris stayed open through the night to help people cope with the heat, including around the Eiffel Tower and across Île-de-France.

The decision also showed how a climate emergency ripples through daily routines far beyond a thermometer reading. Train cancellations and class suspensions already disrupted normal life, while officials tried to keep hospitals and ambulance crews from being overwhelmed by heat exposure, alcohol overconsumption and the long hours of standing and dancing that define the festival. For organizers, the ban meant tighter compliance and fewer alcohol sales; for doctors and first responders, it was a preventive move aimed at keeping crowd pressure from turning into a medical surge.

The warning carried historic weight as well. Météo-France said the 35-department red alert set a record, surpassing the previous high of 20 departments during the heat wave of July 24 and 25, 2019. That made the alcohol ban less a one-off precaution than a sign of a new reality: in France, even the country’s most festive public spaces are now being managed as sites of climate risk and emergency triage.