The Festival d'Avignon was founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar; the first arts week that September included Shakespeare's Richard II in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes. The Cour d'honneur remains the central venue of the festival of theatre and dance, held every July, which now uses more than 30 sites in Avignon and the surrounding area, among them cloisters, churches and the Boulbon quarry, where Peter Brook presented his Mahabharata in 1985. Vilar directed the festival until his death in 1971. From 1966 the independent "Off" festival, with hundreds of private productions, grew up alongside the official "In" programme. Since 2013 the festival has had its own rehearsal and performance building, La FabricA. In 2022 the Portuguese director Tiago Rodrigues took over as director.
The Festival d'Avignon, founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, is the largest theatre festival in Europe — every July the courtyard of the Papal Palace transforms into a spectacular open-air stage.
At a glance
- Type
- Multi-genre theatre
- Location
- Avignon, France
More venues in France
- Auditorium Bordeaux · Concert hall, Bordeaux
- Comédie-Française · Theatre, Paris
- Festival d'Aix-en-Provence · Opera house, Aix-en-Provence
- Opéra Bastille · Opera house, Paris
- Opéra Comique · Opera house, Paris
- Opéra de Lille · Opera house, Lille
- Opéra de Lyon · Opera house, Lyon
- Opéra de Marseille · Opera house, Marseille
- Opéra de Nice · Opera house, Nizza
- Opéra Garnier · Opera house, Paris