The city of Nice will hold three days of commemorative events from 12th to 14th July to mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Promenade des Anglais, which killed 86 people and injured hundreds more on Bastille Day 2016. President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed he will attend the main memorial ceremony on 14th July.
On the evening of 14th July 2016, a 19-tonne truck was driven at speed into crowds gathered on the Promenade des Anglais to watch the Bastille Day fireworks, killing 86 people, including 10 children, and injuring 458 others. The attacker was shot dead by police.
It remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on French soil.
The programme of commemorations has been drawn up in collaboration with the four local victims’ associations — Promenade des Anges, Mémorial des Anges, Life for Nice and Une voie des enfants — and unfolds across three days.
Sunday 12 July — Solemn march
The commemorations open on Sunday 12th July at 9am with a participative solemn march along the Promenade des Anglais, open to victims, their families and the general public. The march will begin opposite the Lenval hospital and conclude at the bandstand with a laying of flowers.
Monday 13 July — Interfaith ceremony
On the evening of Monday 13th July, an interfaith ceremony will be held at the Villa Masséna at 4.30pm in honour of all those killed on 14th July 2016 and their families. The ceremony is by invitation only and will conclude with the lighting of 86 candles at the memorial monument in the Villa Masséna gardens.
Tuesday 14 July — A day of national remembrance
The anniversary itself will be marked by several moments throughout the day. A military parade will take place at Place Masséna from 9am, followed by the main memorial ceremony at 6pm, presided over by President Macron. At 8.30pm, the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at the Théâtre de Verdure. At 10pm, a drone show will take place along the Promenade des Anglais between the first pergola and the “three palms”. At 10.34pm — the exact time the attack began 10 years ago — 86 beams of light will be illuminated along the Promenade in memory of each of the 86 victims.
Exhibition marking ten years of memory and resilience
Running alongside the commemorations, the Villa Masséna will host the exhibition ‘Nice, dix ans de mémoire et de résilience’ from 3rd to 27th July. Drawing on archives, photographs, objects of remembrance, testimonies, symbolic artworks and previously unseen documents, the exhibition traces the collective memory of the attack across its many dimensions — the tribute to victims, the wave of solidarity that followed, and the long process of reconstruction. The exhibition closes with a screening of the documentary ’10 ans’, directed by Franck Fernandes, and is conceived as a space for memory, transmission and reflection on how a community confronts tragedy and rebuilds itself in its aftermath.
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Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti