Why Festival d'Avignon 2019?

One of the major festival of Provence, the theatre festival of Avignon is the largest in Europe.

To be an international meeting place for innovation and creation in the performing arts; to give poetry, modern literature, and philosophy a prominent place; to attract young audiences; to increase the Festival’s presence at the local level; to make new technologies vectors of social and cultural integration: those are the goals Olivier Py has chosen for a Festival its audience sees as “an international celebration of the performing arts,” at once “a keeper of dramatic traditions” and a supporter of “new, experimental paths,” whose aim is to “skillfully render the complexity of our modern world.”

The Festival d’Avignon can be summed up as 70 years of universalism dedicated to preserving our cultural heritage and encouraging contemporary creation. 70 years of dialogue between art and the social reality of our world. 70 years of a political and aesthetic project which serves as witness to the great metamorphoses of the performing arts and, through them, the diversity and complexity of the world.

A place of true creation and adventure:

There are more than thirty differents show performed during the Festival, but and also readings, exhibitions, films and debates, all of which are gateways into the invited artists' own world. Every evening during the Festival, there is at least one show première, making Avignon a place of true creation and adventure for the artists as well as for the audience.

Executive production:

The Avignon Festival plays the role of executive producer for some of the artists invited. The Festival is responsible for sourcing the financial and technical requirements of those productions. It also employs the artists and stage crews, builds the decors in its workshops in Avignon and takes care of the casting of the show in France and abroad outside the Festival time-period.