A Summer in the secret world of the fair folk | M6 | Zone Interdite

With their cotton candy/candy floss, churro fried dough, processions, fancy dress and their thrilling rides, the “carnies” or fair folk stand for summer fun and laughter.

The summer season is capital for them: they sometimes make more than half their annual income during this period. Over several weeks, from Strasbourg to Cap d’Agde, by way of the tiny villages of rural France, the crews from Zone Interdite reveal the secrets and the unusual life of the carnies of France. They all surmount daily problems to live their passion and face the challenges related to their very special way of life.

Tony wants to continue to set up his rides in town centers, despite opposition from municipal authorities. At the head of the carnie protest movement, he is prepared to bring Paris to a halt to have his voice heard.

Pierrick inherited Luna-Park, founded by his father in Cap d’Agde forty years ago. He would like to pass it on to his son, Preston. However, Preston, 20 years old, thinks mostly of partying and pleasing the girls. Will he be up to the job of taking over?

Within the carnie families, some children want to continue their parents’ adventure, like Shawn, 10. He doesn’t like school and dreams of succeeding his father, who cannot read. However, his mother, a carnie by marriage, is fighting to enable her son to continue his education.

Other children would like to do different things with their lives. But being a carnie also means belonging to a community from which it is hard to escape.

Axelle, 17, and Arthur, 13, the children of confectioners, want to become a surgeon and a baker. But will they succeed in breaking out of the community to lead their own lives?

From the family that’s been running carnivals for five generations, to the crowning of the carnival Queen, by way of the man who builds rides, the program’s cameras take us into the daily lives and behind the scenes of all the players of this mythic community.

How is life organized around these summer carnivals? How do they manage to reconcile family life with the frenzied work rate during the summer? How do they prepare their children from an early age to take over the reins?