Festivals and cultural events France

This iconic festival has been held every year at the end of January for 50 years. For four days, the city welcomes the world's greatest comic book artists and scriptwriters, as well as tens of thousands of fans. The National Comic Strip Center (CNBDI) symbolizes this dynamic also carried by Magélis-Pôle Image, the economic development program based on industries, technologies and trades of the image.

Four days of music and festivities! Le Cabaret Vert attracted 127,000 festival-goers to its 2023 edition, and never ceases to thrill the crowds. 18 years of fun and sharing. Lomepal, Nekfeu, Niska, Pomme, Dionysos, the festival is open to all kinds of music and has a strong ecological conscience. But Cabaret Vert isn't just a music festival, it's also a comics festival, bringing some forty talented artists to the fore each year, as well as street shows and screenings.

Brest summers have been festive at the port for twenty years now. This event organised by the municipality is free and open to all. The programme, created by Jacques Guérin and his Quai Ouest Musiques Company, satisfy all tastes. The Thursday port idea was initiated in 1989 with the aim of uniting the Brest people each Thursday evening during summer. Do not miss this gathering for a great popular and friendly musical festival on the banks of the port. Many quality concerts, shows are programmed for free. It becomes most interesting when the port becomes over-crowded.

In Blois, in October, the Rendez-vous de l'Histoire brings together 1 000 speakers from all walks of life each year; it is a unique place for meetings, exchanges and debates. Historians, academics, writers, filmmakers, philosophers, politicians, journalists can find themselves in a long weekend for more than 400 meetings, debates, conferences, historical cafés, workshops, etc., in about fifteen places in the city. On this occasion, the Grain hall (in the heart of Blois) becomes the largest living room in the book book in France. Nearly 150 publishers and 300 authors come to meet the lovers of history. The cinema cycle allows you to see or review films at the cinema Les Lobis, through a selection of about fifty documentaries and fiction, subject to heritage as well as recent production, film archives like television. Finally, Les Rendez-vous de l'Histoire is a unique opportunity to discover the history otherwise, beside it in unusual places (historical cafés), through gastronomic discoveries (historical dinners), shows, exhibitions of photographs, historical comic strips.

It's "the biggest theatre in the world"! Thanks to the diversity of its cultural offerings, the Off, an alternative festival created in 1963 by André Benedetto, is one of the largest festivals of independent companies in the world. It transforms the city - suspended signs, flyers with catchy words, acrobats competing with imagination to bait the barge. Companies come and go from far and wide. Everything is conducive to theatrical gesticulations: improbable places arranged (garage, corridors, barge ... but also disused school and gymnasium).

Since 1991, every year since 1991, the Citadel has been abuzz with excitement. Together with the band La Citadelle, at carnival time, the festival La Citadelle en Bordées is the second highlight of the year for this sailors' district. In Dunkirk, the Citadel is surrounded by basins, it can only be accessed by bridges, so it is a sort of small "island" with a soul and is still very much dedicated to the economy of the port and the sea. This festival therefore logically resounds with sailors' songs, but also with folk, Celtic groups, blues, and French songs that are sometimes offbeat and humorous. At Les Bordées, you'll find people flitting from stage to stage (there are 10 of them!) and from café to café. And when it comes to bars and restaurants, there's plenty to choose from! In addition to these establishments that set up large tables outside, there is always the possibility of eating "a French fry", along the heritage ships of the Port Museum, strolling in the middle of an often compact crowd, especially at the Quai de la Citadelle, and being guided by the sound of the bands. The people of Dunkirk love this event and it's easy to see why. About twenty groups can be seen free of charge. Atmosphere until the end of the night!

The Saint Etienne Design Biennial is bringing the city to international attention. The 2022 edition is interested in forks in the road, through six exhibitions taking the side roads to "choose the essential", the subtitle for this year. Don't forget to browse through the Biennial Off through a hundred or so events. All of which will provide food for thought for Saint-Etienne's double labeling by UNESCO as a "Creative Design City" and "Inclusive City".

The Thursday evenings of summer in Niort are spent in music, with friends or family, in the gardens of the Moulin du Roc, discovering the musicians in the making. Neither really a festival nor completely a concert, and a little bit all at the same time, this event is organized by the town hall, offers free to anyone who wants, to attend the musical performances of emerging groups. Every Thursday, thousands of people flock to the banks of the Sèvre niortaise to listen to two groups grouped by theme. Whatever your musical inclinations, keep an open mind and let yourself be carried away by the musical discovery. Taste one or more quality concerts in a green setting under the inevitably clement summer skies, an invitation that can't be refused!