Jazz music
Every year, for many years now, the Méjan chapel has been hosting an intimate event in Arles, Jazz in Arles, around mid-May. In spite of everything, the quality of this event and the fame of the artists who come to perform there, cannot contain the aura of the meeting which radiates at an international level. For ten days, a very eclectic public can discover the best musicians of the moment, in an atmosphere conducive to direct exchanges between the speakers and their audience. The large volumes of this former church, now desecrated, lend themselves perfectly to this type of music, offering a grandiose setting and impeccable acoustics.
Musical projects follow one another at the Méjan Chapel, taking both neophytes and enlightened amateurs on a true journey to the heart of jazz.
The posters reflect the vitality of the current jazz scene which has revealed many talents, such as the American pianist-composer Carla Bley, Jean-Marc Larché, the clarinettist Élodie Pasquier and many others who have come to perform in Arles.
An event that brings together enthusiasts and beginners around a high-level meeting.
World music in Arles
Every summer, in July, since 1996, the city of Arles is in tune with the Suds. This event animates, during a whole week, the ancient city by proposing to a large public concerts of world music, but also masterclasses of song, dance, music and art of living. During six days and seven nights, from 9 am to 4 am, the scenic meetings follow one another in the heart of historical monuments classified as world heritage by UNESCO, but also in many other symbolic places, such as the Parc des Ateliers, the Place Voltaire or the Espace Van Gogh. There are no rules for this festival, except a requirement on the artistic quality of the proposed events. On this side, moreover, no problems, since the speakers are all renowned artists and pedagogues. It should be noted that the workshops and masterclasses (about forty during the week) are open to all, amateurs and professionals, beginners and advanced. Far from being elitist, the festival des Suds, displays without shame its popular state of mind.
A great event that all music lovers look forward to every year.
International Photography Encounters
Here is another event of worldwide scope that takes place every year, from the beginning of July to the end of September, in the ancient city of Arles, and this, for fifty years. Created in 1970 by the famous Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette, the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles celebrated, in fact, their fiftieth anniversary in 2020, in a somewhat special context.
This great mass of the image allows to discover, in different emblematic places of the city (sometimes visitable only on this occasion), unpublished productions of photographers from around the world. Exhibitions, often realized in collaboration with museums and French and foreign institutions, which highlight the work of leading artists, but also of unknown photographers and journalists.
In total, tens of thousands of visitors have been able to appreciate these works, but also to attend conferences or to learn about photography, during these fifty years.
The Rencontres internationales de la photographie continue all year long at the Musée Réattu, with several hundred works offered or acquired from photographers. A collection that allows us to discover or rediscover the images of great names in photography, such as Doisneau, William Klein, Man Ray or Jean-Pierre Sudre, to name but a few.
Dance, in the Alpilles DNA
It is no secret that we like to celebrate, in the Camargue as in the Alpilles. Coming from the rural world, this need to celebrate the unfolding of the seasons, but also the great events of life: weddings, births, communions... death also, is translated by an extremely rich repertoire of traditional songs and dances.
Once in danger of disappearing, the regional folk dances seem to be saved today, thanks to the numerous schools, associations and festivals that dot the region all year round.
It is difficult to describe precisely these popular dances, because on the one hand there is an enormous variety of them, linked to the circumstances of the daily life, to the seduction, to the jobs... but moreover all these dances know local variants.
The best thing to do is to discover the traditional groups that perform in each town and village throughout the year. Don't miss, for example, the Fiesto Vierginenco, in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, on the last Sunday of July; a festival created in 1903 by Frédéric Mistral to celebrate young girls wearing the traditional costume for the first time. All day long, songs, music and dances follow one another without interruption.
