France has year long events, festivals and other biennials who celebrate creation, dance, cinema, paintings, design and photography. It is an opportunity to push open the doors of unexpected places, to change one's view of the world, to share strong moments and above all, meet those who keep culture alive with passion.
La Gacilly Photo Festival, in Brittany
From June 21 to November 3, 2024
Created in 2004, the Photography festival La Gacilly transforms the small Breton Village every summer into a huge open-air gallery. Through an immersive and ambulatory experience, the best of contemporary photography is presented, in colour or in black and white. More than 1,000 images and XXL photos, some of which are up to 70 m², are displayed on old walls, facades and alleys, exploring the theme of Man and Nature. Under the open sky, without any constraint of course, La Gacilly becomes a scenic space, shared and accessible to all, free of charge.
European Arts and Crafts Days
From 31th March to April 6, 2025
The French regions have talent and a know-how that perpetuate many crafts. The Journées Européennes des Métiers d'Art (JEMA) allows you to discover all of them. Every year in spring, meet craftsmen who open their workshops in training centers or through events, conferences and original exhibitions in Paris and in many other French cities.
Festival de Cannes
From May 13 to 24, 2025
It is one of the biggest international meetings. Since 1946, this film festival takes place every year in Cannes on the French Riviera. Glamour and glitter, red carpet and starlets, for 12 days (traditionally in May), all the world's cinema elite converge on the Croisette with its palm trees and its private beaches on the Mediterranean coast. The competition on the big screen is punctuated by the presentation of the famous and highly coveted Palme d'Or.
Lyon Biennial, Dance/Contemporary art
From September 21, 2024 to January 5, 2025
The Lyon Biennial is a double event, bringing together both a Biennial Dance and alternates with a Contemporary Art Biennial. Each year, even or odd, each creates the event and ensures the show in the city of Gaul. The two events bring professionals and the general public to life with an always rich and participative program. Shows, choreographies, exhibitions and installations take place in halls and large museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon.
The Magnificent Industry, in Strasbourg
2025 (dates to be confirmed)
A company, an artist, a collaboration and, in fine, a work of art, original and monumental, exhibited in the public square. Such is the beautiful project of the Industrie Magnifique, a movement born in Strasbourg, Alsace, in 2016. Every two years, after a joint work process of 12 to 18 months, the pair are unveiled for about ten days and then sown throughout the Alsatian capital. As in an open-air gallery, they also tell the magnificent story of a patronage unlike any other. The next edition could be held on a national scale in 2024.
Saint Etienne International Design Biennial
Spring-Summer 2025
Every two years since 2006, the vocation of the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial, organized by the Cité du design, has been to democratize design and explain its aims. Set up as a large-scale laboratory, the event multiplies installations and exhibitions at the Cité du design but also in the emblematic places of Saint-Etienne: Manufacture, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Art and Industry or Parc-Musée de la Mine. An opportunity for the general public to get a glimpse of the new trends in society.
By Pascale Filliâtre
Journalist-traveller. I often voyage to the end of the world to explore what France offers... just next door. filliatre.pascale@orange.fr
