The Festival d’Avignon is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon every summer in July. The Festival was founded in 1947 after Jean Vilar, a French actor and director, was invited to perform three of his greatest works: Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, Paul Claudel’s “Tobie et Sara”, and Maurice Clavel’s second play, “La Terrasse de Midi” (The Midday Terrace). The performance took place at the Pope’s Palace and at the same time, there was an exhibition of contemporary paintings and sculptures by Christian Zervos, an art critic and collector.

Since then, the Festival has been an annual celebration of all things art and entertainment and takes place at the Pope’s Palace in Avignon. The Festival is growing in popularity every year with more and more tourists coming to visit and plenty of young entertaining talent offering to perform. Last year, around 1,000 shows were performed over the three weeks of the Festival.

The current director of the Festival is Olivier Py, a French writer, director and actor, and he has held the position since September 2013. This year’s festival begins on 6th July and will run every day until 24th July and will offer a range of free and paid shows. The shows include theatre and dance performances, art exhibitions and thought workshops as the Festival tries to stick by its original roots.

So if you’re heading down south this July, be sure to swing by beautiful Avignon to check out this historic festival!

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