Saint-Eloi Neighborhood Carnival

Setting up the “Carnival Workshop” several months in advance (construction, cooking, music, dance, DJing…)

Context

We felt the need to carry out a long-term project in a neighborhood of our city, Poitiers. We wanted to start from the desires of the people we would meet, taking time for encounter and consultation. We did not want to build a giant puppet, as we often do. We wanted to move, step out of our comfort zone, try new things, and become actively involved in our territory.

The City of Poitiers agreed to support this approach, and we “settled” in the Saint-Eloi neighborhood for two years.

The Neighborhood

Saint-Eloi is a relatively new neighborhood, composed largely of social housing. Many different cultures live here. The area includes two high schools, two primary school groups, a senior residence, a media library, and a young social center, but very few shops. Sports facilities are largely inaccessible to residents because they are dedicated to clubs, including the professional basketball team.

It is a quiet, primarily residential area, but one that suffers from a poor image in the city: low activity, few meeting spaces, difficult social conditions, drug circulation, and a sense of insecurity. This negative perception has, for example, led to many social housing units remaining vacant for lack of tenants.

Our Intervention

After a month of consultation, the idea of organizing a neighborhood carnival emerged. A carnival had existed in the past and this celebration resonates with many of the cultures present in the neighborhood: Antillean, Réunionese, Guyanese, Angolan…

We partnered with the local social center and together gathered all the other neighborhood actors: schools, high schools, prevention teams, mediation teams, the social housing provider, the senior residence, the neighborhood committee, the media library, associations… Together we imagined the Saint-Eloi Carnival, a celebration by and for the neighborhood residents.

We opened the Carnival Workshop four afternoons per week for six months, running construction workshops for the elements that would decorate the parade. At the same time, we involved groups and associations in all aspects of organizing the event.

The carnival took place on Friday, March 21, 2025, from 2 PM to midnight, and it was a wonderful celebration. Many residents were amazed that such an event was happening in their own neighborhood. We saw neighbors happy to meet each other. There was a palpable sense of pride in the air — a feeling that said: our neighborhood deserves this.

This project is hosted by SEVE, Maison de Quartier de Saint-Eloi, and funded by the City of Poitiers, with support from the Fonds d’Initiative pour les Quartiers, the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the Poitiers Rectorate.