French mayor defends holding massive Smurf rally despite coronavirus spread

[BUtterfield 8 41,818]

On Saturday, thousands of people dressed as Smurfs — the fictional, blue gnome-like characters — gathered in Landerneau, France to try to break a world record. The mayor of Landerneau defended the decision to hold the rally despite concerns about the coronaviruspandemic. 

More than 3,500 Smurf cosplayers gathered over the weekend in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest group of people dressed as Smurfs. Last year, the award was given to a group of 2,762 who gathered for a carnival in Lauchringen, Germany.

Saturday's event occurred just a day before France officially bannedgatherings of more than 1,000 people to prevent the spread of the virus, which has now infected more than 120,000 people worldwide and killed more than 4,300. 
 

On Tuesday, Landerneau Mayor Patrick Leclerc defended the decision to hold the event, which he said was necessary to alleviate the "ambient gloom" around the country. "We must not stop living. It was the chance to say that we are alive," he told AFP.

"We got our costumes from all the shops in the area and we figured that a bit of fun would do us all good at the moment," Landerneau said. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/coronavirus-pandemic-france-smurf-rally-world-record/#

[uo111 5,282]

The ones who start coughing 10 days from now are gonna feel pretty stupid...

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

I can't     this is so ridiculous to me that a damn Smurf rally/convention is more important that protecting the health of others

[Chromatica 7,042]

LOL

[Rat Boy 43,832]

Wow the blue tribe from Chromatica needs to CHILL.

[Chic 20,830]

Anyone who would go to this event, especially in this kind of crisis, is ill in their own right

[FlopSlurper 34,336]

1 minute ago, Mer Boy said:

Wow the blue tribe from Chromatica needs to CHILL.

we all thought the green tribe would be the first to pull some dumb move like this. I expected better from the blue tribe honestly 

[REALITY 80,170]

I saw the title and I was like, "they can't be talking about those little blue things, right?", and then I came to this thread only to see hundreds of people dressed up as those little blue ****ers

[blankpaper 21]

This should have been cancelled even without the coronavirus 

[LaMaisonGaga 23,884]

[MANiCURE 6 10,306]

[Serial Chiller 8,044]

Having a smurf convention is questionable in the first place.

Having a smurf convention during a virus outbreak is ... 

[Snorlax 6,370]

[Guest]

Whats the point in doing a Smurf rally? Has the world gone mad??????

[Francesca Cipriani 1,668]

 "We must not stop living. It was the chance to say that we are alive," 

Not for long, I'd say...