Festival of Avignon - Festival Off Avignon
It is in the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes that the Festival d'Avignon was inaugurated, in 1947. An annual theatre festival, it was founded by Jean Vilar, an actor, play director and film director - born on 25 March 1912, he passed away on 28 May 1971 in Sète.
It is a meeting between Jean Vilar and René Char (the French poet and wartime resistant, born on 14 June 1907 in l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, he passed away on 19 February 1988 in Paris) which gave rise to the idea of the Festival, and the first play to be shown was William Shakespeare's King Richard the Second, directed by Vilar.
New venues for spectacles opened up in the mid-sixties, some of them totally unexpected and original and this concept was to become one of the unique aspects of this Festival, seemingly turning the whole of Avignon into one giant stage every summer.
Each year around forty shows and spectacles showcase the very best in French contemporary creativity in the fields of dance, theatre and, more broadly, performing arts as a whole. The Avignon festival is, without doubt, the premier theatre and live spectacle event in France, both through the variety and number of productions and the crowds they draw.
