Festivals and cultural events Midi-Pyrénées

The greatest names in classical and baroque music from all over the world have been gathering in July in Uzès for over fifty years. In the courtyards of the duchy and the bishop's palace, in the cathedral of Saint-Théodorit, the church of Saint-Étienne, the temple or the auditorium of L'Ombrière, symphonies and concertos enchant the ducal city during two weeks. The festival is gradually opening up to other musical genres, notably jazz, in order to reach a wider audience. A charming meeting, loved as much by the musicians as by the spectators.

This association organizes the summer festival of the Douctouyre valley. This multicultural festival proposes each year local theater, projections of reports and documentaries, concerts, meetings with the producers of the valley, various workshops... The goal is to encourage meetings and sharing between all generations. But the small and nice association has become with time a big and dynamic association, and presents throughout the year artists in different places...

The first edition of the festival Festa Majorca was a great success! With an eclectic program implemented by Catalan producers with the support of the department, it is in the heart of Perpignan, in the sumptuous palace of the kings of Majorca, that festival-goers can enjoy two enchanted days: traditional wooden games for young and old, sound baths with local tunes, old-fashioned circus, dance and rock scenes, electro as well as sound system... It is about sixty Catalan artists who meet during this beautiful local event.

The Mise Au Point festival, known as MAP, is a cultural event entirely free of charge dedicated to amateur photography. Created in 2009, it has grown in size and is held every year in the city centre. Its ambition is to make the general public discover the practice, while serving as a showcase for budding talents. It is a bridge between the inner worlds of the exhibitors and the eyes of the visitors. As a nomadic festival, every year it invests different emblematic sites of Toulouse's cultural heritage, which it transforms into giant galleries. To be looked at with a wide open mind! A beautiful encounter with visual creation and why not, the opportunity to exhibit your own works?

The Festival du Roman Noir in Frontignan, with its program of local and international authors and a growing Occitan approach, is a must this summer. For 3 days, enjoy some twenty literary encounters, exhibitions, readings in unusual locations (a boat or even a telephone booth!), literary workshops, book signings and numerous games, competitions and events... And don't forget the 3 evenings of festive entertainment!

For twenty-five years, the 31 Notes d'été festival has combined culture, heritage and tourism by offering free concerts, shows, fifty or so tourist and cultural visits and exhibitions throughout the Haute-Garonne. The objective being to create links, no less than 36,000 people gathered in 2022 for the whole festival throughout the department to experience moments of shared emotion. Find online the numerous dates in Toulouse, Grenade, Paulhac, L'Isle-en-Dodon or Montréjeau.

With tunes from America and South Africa to Europe, you can enjoy world music concerts, street entertainment, parades and various workshops on the folk arts and traditions of the invited countries. In recent years, however, local and regional culture has taken center stage, with exhibitions on the musical instruments of the cobla, and the culinary and folk traditions that make up the cultural richness of the Catalan region.

Since 1991, the Confluences association has organized the Lettres d'automne literary festival every year at the end of November in Montauban and throughout the department. During two weeks, the program offers meetings, readings, shows, literary concerts, exhibitions, workshops, the festival bookstore, as well as bridges from literature to various artistic disciplines (cinema, sculpture, dance...).

The Sant Jordi festival in Perpignan is a not-to-be-missed event in the literary world. For 10 days, books are in the spotlight with an attractive program including conferences, exhibitions, shows, book fairs and signings, writing workshops, tributes, film screenings and the Mediterranean prize-giving ceremony... A colorful line-up of events, with a special focus on local figures. The full program is available online.

3 days of traditional Catalan dance in Céret! This dance holds a special place in the hearts of all Roussillon residents. During the festival, you'll be able to meet "colles" (groups of dancers) from the 4 corners of the department and Spanish Catalonia. To the sound of coblas (sardana orchestras), try your hand at this dance or enjoy the music in the streets and squares of the village! The event closes with the "Germanor", a sardana fraternity gathering up to 500 dancers.

Organized by Le Fil Production, the Trad'session is a touring season of traditional music in music venues across the Occitanie region. Each session is a new call to share and celebrate for fans of traditional music and dance. The events not only showcase traditional music, but also introduce a new audience to a musical aesthetic that is rarely represented in contemporary music venues. Make a note of these winter events in your diary!

As part of Total Festum and the promotion of Occitan culture, the Rencontres de Salinelles is a cultural event focusing on Oc literature and creations. The program includes exhibitions and conferences on a wide range of Occitan cultural themes, "poetic siestas", local music concerts, an Occitan book fair and storytelling for children. Free cultural days for young and old!

The dance association Traces Contemporaines celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2023. For the occasion, its annual festival will celebrate the joy transmitted by the energy of dance and the entire event will be turned towards the enchantment and the thirst to vibrate high and strong. For four days, dance will resonate in the heart of Cahors with the presence of the Humanhood Dance Company. You can find all the programming and the ticketing of the festival on the website of the association.

For over ten years, l'Européenne de cirques has been THE festival dedicated entirely to contemporary circus. Toulouse's venues welcome circus artists and companies from all over Europe, to introduce Toulousans and fans from all over the region to shows that multiply influences and effects. Young and old alike will appreciate the unique worlds of each artist. We look forward to seeing you at La Grainerie in autumn, to discover a new program every year!

Founded in 1991 by a group of traditional Occitan dancers, the Trad'envie festival is dedicated to showcasing the diversity of popular Occitan culture through dance, song, music and, of course, the Occitan language... The festival also hosts a stringed-instrument fair, and every year, it's a bold and eclectic affair. With no fewer than twenty concerts and dances, there's no doubt that everyone will be able to enjoy some fine musical discoveries, as well as fine Gascon meals!

How to relive the best songs evoking Paris, the city of love and beauty? It is by coming to listen to young talented artists who will interpret for you the best compositions of these last decades.

Mid-September: Concerts, museums and free entertainment planned at historic sites on the occasion of heritage days.

First week of August. On the National Square, this project initiated by Alain Martyn de l'Opéra de Paris, and artistic director of the Théâtre Olympe de Cutters opens to the great national dancers.

From 20 to 24 May 2009. Jazz in Comminges Parc des Expositions and downtown Saint-Gaudens. Four days of free concerts in the city centre, music courses, class courses, exhibitions, films, tour proposals and commercial animation…

A guest writer offers a selection of films.

For forty-five years, Sylvanès Abbey has been setting the stage each year with its International Festival of Sacred Music and World Music. This not-to-be-missed event features internationally-renowned artists working on a specific theme, and offers the chance to hear choirs, solo singers and organists perform sacred, liturgical, classical and traditional works. Performances take place in the former ^12th-century Cistercian abbey.

Every year, for the past 59 years, the town of Pézenas has hosted a festival dedicated to the cinematographic universe of a country. Organized by the Federation of Mediterranean Film Clubs (FCCM), the event has already included feature films, shorts, documentaries and tributes from Belgium, England, Scandinavia and many other countries! Punctuated by moments of exchange and discovery, the festival brings together the public around a variety of activities: screenings of some fifty projects, exhibitions, film-concerts, meetings with actors and directors...

An essential image of Catalan identity, a symbol of peace and friendship, a festive and popular dance par excellence, the sardana (in Catalan sardana) is danced in the public squares of the Pyrénées-Orientales and South Catalonia. The sardana is danced in a closed circle alternating, in principle, a man and a woman. During the Francoist period, the sardana was banned in South Catalonia, but as a bravado against the dictatorship, it was still danced until it reached the square in front of Barcelona Cathedral. The sardana was known outside Catalonia thanks to Pablo Casals' "L'oratorio" and Charles Trenet's song "La jolie sardane" composed to music reminiscent of Catalan dance. Finally, it should be noted that Perpignan is in 2019 the international capital of the Sardana.

The Correfocs, literally "the fire runners", are an opportunity to see an unusual facet of Catalonia. At nightfall, the "devil's glue" (groups disguised as devils, demons and witches) run past with spinning Bengal fires planted on spikes, dancing around people to the sound of percussion. Another representation of good versus evil, noise and fire being supposed to drive away demons (found in northern and southern Catalonia from spring to October).

Jousting on the Garonne! Fiesta Garona renews with tradition to offer, at the beginning of September, a festive, family and free weekend. Fiesta Garona is the result of a partnership between various yacht clubs in Toulouse (rowing, canoeing, jet skiing, water skiing...) and other structures such as Toulouse à Table or the Pêcheurs de Sable refreshment bar. Each edition brings together nearly 20,000 people! So you can watch jousting on characteristic traditional boats, but you can also try an introductory session to water sports, or even go for a swim across the Garonne! At dusk, it's time for torchlight night shows.

Building on its success with the Toulouse Game Show, the organizer TGS Événements has been offering a free event dedicated to Japanese culture since 2018. Make no mistake, this is not a "TGS light"! Pop culture certainly finds its place there, but the ambition of this show is to exchange around Japan and all its forms of cultural expression. You will attend martial arts demonstrations, you will be able to discover an amazing collection of bonsai, you will be amazed by an exhibition of kimonos, you will be able to take cooking classes, listen to lectures on tea, learn calligraphy, go game... A beautiful immersion in the land of the Rising Sun.

Africlap is an annual festival organized by the cultural association of the same name. Its ambition is to use cinema to forge social links and create interaction with others. In local neighborhoods, the association organizes workshops designed to popularize the practice of filmmaking. Throughout the year, Africlap also organizes meetings around film screenings. Its annual festival is an opportunity to discover different works produced across Africa, and to encounter their diversity. In Occitanie, it's the most important event for African cinema. Screenings are accompanied by a cultural village, a meeting place for artists and spectators.

If the town of Cordes-sur-Ciel is already by nature a must-see in the Tarn's heritage, here is a festival that could reinforce your desire to discover this singular city. This event has the particularity of being centred around chamber music. Each year, the chosen compositions cross all periods, from the Middle Ages to the present day, and, rarely, a composer is invited to compose live. In addition to the concerts, workshops and master classes are organised.

This meeting, now well installed in early August, offers an Opportunity to Discover an Unusual Mirepoix Populated by Cute Little characters manipulated. This festival remains faithful to its desire to promote the many forms of puppet, from the most traditional to the most contemporary. The festival decentralise its programming in the villages and proposes campaign circuits in places as diverse as an orchard, a small place, a deadlock, etc.

From one end of the book chain to the other, there is the author and the bookseller. The first one invents stories, while the second, in his shop, sells what has already been read. This is why organizing the Salon du Livre des Auteurs Indépendants in the heart of the village of Montolieu, where about fifteen second-hand booksellers are installed, is to establish a link, a bridge that connects the same passion: the book.

Music lovers and artists from all over the world will make the annual pilgrimage to Chalabre, in the Cathar country. Throughout the week, professional singers will perform in the streets and parks, the theater and bars. They will sing on stage, by the lake, at the foot of the castle... The major event will be held under the hall in the heart of the village. This year again, artists, two Masterclasses (one on Spanish music and the other on how to sing), and animations, a market of creators, catering...