Festivals and cultural events Poitou-Charentes

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.

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!

Without a doubt, this is the largest concert hall in Charente-Maritime and the must-see event of the summer. To get a seat, nothing could be easier! Bring a towel and settle down on the beach of the Grande Conche. Not only will you enjoy an exceptional natural setting, but you will also listen to classical music for three nights. Four to six performers and dancers follow one another on this ephemeral stage, presenting some of the greatest classical music, jazz sounds and world music.

Dominique Besnehard, together with Marie-France Brière and Jean Mardikian, has created a warm, human-sized event that takes place every year at the end of August, where the stars of the big screen come to enjoy the mild climate and the activity of the streets of Angoulême. Ideal for meeting stars in all simplicity and celebrating the French-speaking world of the seventh art, this festival mixes styles: drama, comedy, films for all audiences and open-air screenings, animation, everyone will find what they are looking for.

Every odd-numbered year, clowns from around the world gather in Niort for just over a month. You can visit them at home in their village of Duguesclin, then keep an eye on the program between the Niort festival and the caravan that will be criss-crossing the département. A cascade of antics awaits you, as well as presentations of their offbeat, poetic, tender and funny vision of the problems that plague us all, poor humans. Next rendez-vous in 2025.

Real hot spots in Angouleme, one celebrate the fortieth edition in 2015. The event impelled by Christian Mousset did not cease being reinvented and increasing. The festival is a three days ode to the African music scenes, caribéennes, of Latin America, Indian Ocean and others still. Popular music with a more contemporary scene, the accent is put on the love of life and the original bringings together between cultures. With the image of this food-together, the festival ones are of all the horizons, of all the ages and the atmosphere at the village is only more cordial and family.

A myriad of stands border the village whose entrance is free: record dealers, tasty and international catering facilities, stands of reading, relaxation areas... ideal for the children and the activities in day. The night, the concerts make turn the heads and wiggle the public. Great names made their first French scene in Angouleme: Salif Keita, Johnny Clegg, Cesária Évora, Khaled, Cheb Mami, Kassav'... and of the hundred artists are invited each year, tops of the bill like IAM for the year 2015 or new talents which will undoubtedly gain a new public on the scene of the festival. The festival also opens to other public with the festival "out of walls", meetings literary or storytellers, workshops musical with the children, ambulations are organized in Angouleme and in its region to extend the magic of the festival to it.

Every summer, for one week, the Festival in the village makes Brioux-sur-Boutonne and its surroundings vibrate. Listed as a theatrical event, it offers around sixty shows of all kinds, including a traditional circus headliner: dance, readings, concerts, street arts, etc. A programme as rich as qualitative to be found under the central tent, deployed on the Champ-de-Foire square, but also in various cultural places, church, Corderie... Food and drink of course, but also a lot of eco-responsible activities to discover with your family.

Since this summer festival has taken on an almost unexpected dimension, why not get back to the winter. Since 2000, the organizers have had the right idea to offer a second season of life at this event at a time when the game is in the centre of all tastes: Christmas. This time the festival does not span over a week like during the summer period, but it brings back to the front of the scene items that could find themselves at the foot of the tree a few weeks later. The animation lasts only the weekend with the presentation of traditional games and, technology compelling, video games with Saturday a great wanderings in the medieval maze of the city where all those who wish can wear candlelight.

In Ivry, the territory has blues, and blues. This festival offers for four days master classes, but also for the initiations of the children's blues as well as music and, of course, concerts with musicians from all over the world and gathered by their passion for this music from the work songs that we heard in the cotton fields.

Like every year, this festival kicks off the summer season in La Rochelle. Attached to the city, it allows moviegoers to attend retrospectives dedicated to directors or actors who have passed away with their work programmed in its entirety: Orson Welles, Buster Keaton, John Ford, Luchino Visconti... During 10 days, the spectators go in front of one of the screens to enjoy one of the 5 daily sessions. This year, the 50th La Rochelle Cinema Festival celebrates the golden age of Hollywood cinema with the inevitable Audrey Hepburn.