Live shows, guinguettes and music festival
Live music and festive moments liven up the summer evenings. In Chinon, cafés, restaurants and associations offer a program of musical shows with local artists and sometimes a headliner. The guinguettes also have their own program. The resumption of music evenings at the Café Français in Chinon, finally reopened, is also appreciated. There are even concerts in apartments in Chinon, not to mention the organic wine and music fair. In the summer, keep an eye out for concerts and musical evenings scheduled in the cafés, including those at the atmospheric bar La Place or at La Cabane à vins (Chinon) or at Café de Loire (Chouzé-sur-Loire). Particularly dynamic as for the musical animation on the territory, the association Voyages en guitare organizes a convivial festival of beautiful quality which delights its public each year.Voyages en Guitare Festival
This festival takes place over ten days in September. In 2022, it programmed 40 concerts and mobilized nearly 50 volunteers! A 10 years old vintage that started with the crazy Jacquard Brothers and ended with the famous Kora Jazz Trio. It was like every year a guitar trip of all styles! Deployed on the territory of the community of communes, it proposes its rural concerts in Couziers, Saint-Benoît, Saint-Germain, Candes-Saint-Martin, Chinon. Also involved: the Devinière museum, the Max Ernst house, the Dutilleux house, the Bodard de la Jacopière hotel, the Maison Rouge. During the concerts, a refreshment bar and the sale of local products are part of the sustainable development. The Voyages en guitare festival programs artists representing various cultures: Andalusian, gypsy, Celtic, Balkan... This festival is the highlight of a year-long program. Through music, the association aims at a better understanding between peoples by giving the public the desire to be interested in the diversity of cultures. In addition to concerts, Voyages en guitare offers courses, workshops, cultural and artistic conferences, master classes...
Avoine Zone Groove, Rock Chinon nothing and others!
Rock bands also set the area on fire. In early March, Chinon's Espace Rabelais will host the Du Rock Chinon Rien festival, an event organized by Asso Roc, founded in 1992 to support local rock bands and provide them with a rehearsal space, activities, and workshops, such as an introduction to mixing. Since then, the association manages the rehearsal room for rock bands on the Roche-Faucon coast, in Chinon. This association is the initiative of the event Du Rock Chinon Rien which takes place since 2015, the first Saturday of March. It is a free concert, funded by the municipality, with a headliner and in first part the opportunity for local bands to perform in public. This mini-festival sets the Espace Rabelais on fire, while on the square, a refreshment stand welcomes the public for food and drink.
Another Saturday, in May, is a festive day with Chinon en Fanfares, which has been bringing joy to the streets and squares of the city center for more than 10 years, and sees bands from all over France perform. This fun event is accompanied by commercial and gourmet activities. In the evening, it is the battle in the collegiate church Saint-Mexme. In 2022, the public prize was awarded to the Jukepop band and the jury prize to the Moussaka band.
Another atmosphere in Avoine with the Avoine Zone Groove Festival at the end of June or beginning of July. In 2022, the twentieth edition of this festival will take place. It offers three days of music and party music with cult bands and free concerts. You can eat on the spot and move to festive music in a warm atmosphere. An opportunity to have fun until the end of the night! Add the cultural season of Avoine, always very eclectic, rich and qualitative and the podium of the summer of Avoine inviting always a "star" (free event).
The Dutilleux Joy house, the conservatory and the music schools
Three sites are particularly involved in the musical animation of the territory: the Henri Dutilleux house, in Candes-Saint-Martin, the music conservatory of Avoine and the music and dance conservatory of Chinon. The Maison Henri Dutilleux hosts artists in residence and programs concerts in different places in the region as well as a festival. The CAEM, Carrefour d'Animation et d'Expression Musicale, an inter-communal music school, covers the whole territory. Located on the second floor of the intercommunal social center of Avoine, the school has a branch in the village of Huismes. The CAEM is a place for learning and practicing music open to all. It offers a musical awakening, from the age of 5, for the development of the child's imagination, motor and auditory capacities, and then, from the age of 7, two cycles of courses, from the acquisition of the basics of individual and collective practice to personal artistic and musical development and the acquisition of the basics of independent practice. From the bass to the violin, the flute or the saxophone, nine musical disciplines are taught at the CAEM. In addition, there are workshops in jazz, amplified music and fusion, as well as theater with the Compagnie Générale des Mômes, the Véron Choir and the Big Band Jazz which operates in Huismes. The school is also open to adults who do not follow a full curriculum but who wish to continue learning an instrument and/or collective practice. The CAEM develops partnerships with the media library, museums and associations in order to develop local, cross-generational and citizen-oriented projects. The Chinon school adds dance to its music courses.
