On 21 May, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced the generalisation of the “pass Culture” for all 18 year olds. This election promise, that comes true, is expected to reach 800,000 young people. The scheme will be extended to secondary school pupils from the eighth grade class in 2022.
It was during the 2017 presidential campaign that Emmanuel Macron, then a candidate, mentionned the idea of making available to 18-year-olds “a new scheme promoting access to culture in order to strengthen and diversify cultural practices, by revealing the cultural wealth of the territories”. It was called the “pass Culture”.
Since then, this idea has gained ground and, after two years of experimentation in 14 French departments, the scheme is finally operational. It is managed by a simplified joint stock company (SAS) whose shareholders are the Ministry of Culture and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations through its Banque des Territoires activity.
The “pass Culture” is an app for young people aged 18 on which they have €300 for 24 months to discover and book local cultural proposals and digital offers.
In concrete terms, they only need to download the app to discover all the cultural offers, then register if they live in France or in the French overseas territories (notably Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin, St. Barthélemy, French Guiana, in the Caribbean) and finally book the activities and cultural goods directly on the app thanks to their €300. Young people who do not have French nationality but have been living in France for a year are eligible for the “pass Culture”.
The 800,000 young people concerned will be able, for example, to buy books, a musical instrument, go to the movies, concerts, plays or any other live performance, go to the museum, take music, photography or drawing lessons, subscribe to a magazine, to an online music and video platform etc..
Note that purchases of digital goods (ebooks, SVoD, video games, etc.) are capped at €100. In addition, French industries are promoted (Deezer, Canal +, OCS etc.).
A professional platform https://pass.culture.fr/ has been created for cultural actors (public, private or associative structures) in mainland France or in the French overseas territories to enable them to promote their cultural programming free of charge and to propose artistic and cultural offers, free or paying, for young people.
Nearly 237,000 users and more than 900,000 bookings have already been registered on this digital platform.
The “pass Culture” will be extended to secondary school pupils from the eighth grade class next year.
