Festival d’Avignon

The Festival d’Avignon, also known as the Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the city of Avignon, France. It was founded in 1947 by French actor and theater director Jean Vilar who served as the festival director until his death in 1971.

In 1947, poet René Char and art critic Christian Zervos organized a modern art exhibition that took place in the main courtyard (Court d’Honneur) of the Palais des Papes, a historical palace in Avignon. They asked Jean Vilar to present his successful production, Meurtre dans la cathédrale (Murder in the Cathedral) by T. S. Eliot.

Vilar initially declined the invitation because he considered the venue too vast and “shapeless”. Besides, he had already lost the performance rights to the play by that time. Having given it some thought, he suggested three other plays instead: Richard III by William Shakespeare, L’Histoire de Tobie et de Sara (The Story of Tobie and Sara) by Paul Claudel, and La Terrasse de midi (The Noon Terrace) by Maurice Clavel. That’s how the Festival d’Avignon was born.

The inaugural Avignon Festival was held in September 1947. Its program laid the foundation for all the future installments. The Festival d’Avignon focuses on new plays and productions that are little known to audiences in France yet. It strives to showcase work by emerging actors, directors and playwrights. On the other hand, Vilar’s approach to the art of theater remained quite conservative. That’s why in 1966 theater director André Benedetto founded the Festival OFF d’Avignon, an independent theater festival for experimental and alternative productions.

Since its inception, the Festival d’Avignon has become one of the world’s most important and prestigious theater festivals. It is held every July in the Court d’Honner of the Palais des Papes with a capacity of 2,000 and a number of smaller venues throughout Avignon, including theaters, schools, churches and concert halls. The program of the festival typically includes 30 to 50 productions as well as public readings, exhibitions, film screenings, panels and debates featuring artists from around the world.

The Festival d’Avignon sells between 120,000 and 140,000 tickets to paid events every year. Besides, between 20,000 and 30,000 people attend free events offered by the festival. Approximately 33% of the audience comes from the Avignon area, 52% from the rest of France, and the rest from abroad. The festival features about 3,500 professional artists from all over the world. The Festival d’Avignon is a non-profit organization supported by the Government of France, the City of Avignon, and a number of cultural organizations.