Historic reception the day before festival, captured in article for Paris Match (5)
I believe the answer is:
levee
'historic reception' is the definition.
'levee' can be an answer for 'reception' (I've seen this before). I am not certain of the 'historic' bit.
'day before festival captured in article for paris match' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'day' could be 'eve' (eve is a kind of day) and 'eve' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for levee that I've seen before include "River bank reinforcement, particularly in the US" , "Gathering" , "Embankment that should prevent flooding" , "Morning reception once held by monarch" , "An embankment built to prevent a river from overflowing" .)