AVIGNON FESTIVAL

The Avignon Festival is an annual theatre festival founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, following a meeting with the poet René Char. It takes place every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes, in multiple theatres and venues in the historic centre of Avignon (Vaucluse), as well as in some locations outside the "city of popes".

The Avignon Festival is the most important theatre and performing arts event in France, and one of the most important in the world in terms of the number of creations and spectators gathered, and one of the oldest major decentralized artistic events.

The Cour d'honneur of the Palais des papes is the birthplace of the Festival which takes over more than 30 places in the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and its region, in works of art but also gymnasiums, cloisters, chapels, gardens, quarries, churches.

BIRTH OF THE AVIGNON FESTIVAL

1947, Drama Week

As part of a modern art exhibition they were organizing in the great chapel of the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, art critic Christian Zervos and poet René Char suggested in 1947 to Jean Vilar, actor, director and troupe leader, that he propose to the city the creation of a "week of dramatic art".

Jean Vilar initially refused to implement this project, doubting its technical feasibility, and the Mayor of Avignon, Georges Pons, did not provide the expected support.

The municipality, wanting to revive the city through reconstruction and culture following the bombings of April 1944, finally gave its approval to the project, and the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes was prepared. Jean Vilar was able to create "A Week of Art in Avignon" from September 4 to 10, 1947. 4,800 spectators, 2,900 of whom paid (the large number of guests was criticized), attended seven performances of the "three creations" in three venues (the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes, the Municipal Theatre, and the Verger d'Urbain V):

The Tragedy of King Richard II, by Shakespeare,

a play little known in France, La Terrasse de midi, by Maurice Clavel, an author then still unknown, and

The Story of Tobias and Sarah, by Paul Claudel:

Building on the initial critical success, Jean Vilar returned the following year for a Dramatic Art Week, with the revival of the tragedy of King Richard II, and the creations of The Death of Danton by Georg Buchner, and Shéhérazade by Jules Supervielle, which he directed all three.

He has assembled a troupe of actors who now come every year to gather an increasingly large and increasingly loyal audience.

These young talents include: Jean Négroni, Germaine Montero, Alain Cuny, Michel Bouquet, Jean-Pierre Jorris, Silvia Montfort, Jeanne Moreau, Daniel Sorano, Maria Casarès, Philippe Noiret, Monique Chaumette, Jean Le Poulain, Charles Denner, Jean Deschamps, Georges Wilson… Gérard Philipe, already famous on screen, joined the troupe when the TNP reopened in 1951, and became its icon, with his roles in Le Cid and The Prince of Homburg.

His success grew, despite sometimes very virulent criticism; Vilar was thus labeled a "Stalinist," "fascist," "populist," and "cosmopolitan." The deputy director of theater and music, Jeanne Laurent, supported Vilar and appointed him head of the TNP in 1951, whose productions then fed into the festival until Georges Wilson replaced him at Chaillot in 1963.

The few guest directors were from the TNP (Théâtre National Populaire): Jean-Pierre Darras in 1953, Gérard Philipe in 1958, Georges Wilson in 1953 and again from 1964 onwards, when Vilar no longer directed plays. Under the name Festival d'Avignon, from 1954, Jean Vilar's work expanded, giving substance to its creator's idea of popular theatre and highlighting the vitality of theatrical decentralization through the TNP's productions.

Within the popular education movement, youth movements and secular networks are participating in the militant renewal of theatre and its audience, who are invited to participate in readings and debates on dramatic art, new forms of staging, cultural policies…

In 1965, Jean-Louis Barrault's troupe from the Odéon-Théâtre de France presented Numance, marking the beginning of an important opening which, from 1966 onwards, was marked by the extension of the duration to one month and by the inclusion, in addition to the TNP productions, of two creations from the Théâtre de la Cité by Roger Planchon and Jacques Rosner, labeled as a permanent troupe, and nine dance performances by Maurice Béjart with his Ballet du XXe siècle.

But the festival reflects the transformation of theatre. Thus, alongside the productions of national drama institutions, theatres, and drama centers, an "Off" festival, unofficial and independent, emerged in 1966, initiated by the Théâtre des Carmes, co-founded by André Benedetto and Bertrand Hurault. Initially, and without any intention of creating a movement, André Benedetto's company was joined the following year by other troupes.

In response, Jean Vilar moved the festival out of the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des papes in 1967, and installed a second stage at the Cloître des Carmes, next to the theatre of André Benedetto, entrusted to the CDN du Sud-Est of Antoine Bourseiller.

The other drama centers and national theaters in turn present their productions (Jorge Lavelli for the Théâtre de l'Odéon, the Maison de la culture de Bourges), while four new venues are used in the city between 1967 and 1971 (cloître des Célestins, Théâtre municipal and chapelle des Pénitents blancs complement the cloître des Carmes), and the festival becomes internationalized, like the thirteen nations present at the first International Youth Meetings organized by the CEMEA, or the presence of the Living Theatre in 1968.

This broadening of the artistic fields of the "Avignon Festival" continued in the following years, through the youth shows of Catherine Dasté of the Théâtre du Soleil, the cinema with the previews of La Chinoise by Jean-Luc Godard in the Cour d'honneur in 1967 and of Baisers volés by François Truffaut in 1968, the musical theatre with Orden by Jorge Lavelli in 1969, and the music from that same year, leaving for the occasion the city walls to occupy the Saint-Théodorit church in Uzès.

Vilar directed the festival until his death in 1971. That year, thirty-eight shows were offered on the sidelines of the festival.

The crisis of 1968

Following the May 1968 protests and the resulting actors' strikes, there were no French productions in this 22nd edition of the Avignon Festival, eliminating nearly half of the 83 scheduled shows. The Living Theatre productions were maintained, as well as Béjart's work in the Cour d'honneur, and a wide-ranging film program benefited from the cancellation of the Cannes Film Festival that same year.

On June 21, in a press conference, the Festival management announced that it would give space to the May protests, notably by transforming the "Meetings" into "Assemblies".

The presence since May 18 of the Living Theatre - highlighted in the documentary Être libre released in November 1968 - whose behavior shocked some Avignon residents, can be considered responsible for the victory of Jean-Pierre Roux in the legislative elections.

When Gérard Gelas's play *La Paillasse aux seins nus* (The Bare-Breasted Clown) in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon was censored by the prefect of Gard on July 18, 1968, who saw it as a potential site of anarchist terrorism, the already tense atmosphere erupted. After two leaflets questioning the Assises (the cultural conference) as a co-opting and institutionalization of the protest movement, as well as a virulent critique of Gaullist cultural policy and its institutions ("Isn't industrial culture, like the bourgeois university, a smokescreen designed to make any awareness and any liberating political activity impossible?"), a third leaflet was distributed to inform people of the censorship and announce that the Living Theatre and Béjart would not be performing in solidarity. Béjart was unaware of this, as he was rehearsing. Julian Beck refused Vilar's proposal to make a statement in solidarity with Gérard Gelas's Théâtre du Chêne Noir and instead suggested staging La Paillasse aux seins nus at the Carmes in place of the Living Theatre's Antigone. The mayor and Vilar refused.

Demonstrations take place in the Place de l'Horloge and riot police intervene. Every evening, this square transforms into a forum where politicians are in attendance.

Béjart's performance on July 19th in the Cour d'honneur was disrupted by a spectator, Saul Gottlieb, who went on stage and called on Béjart not to perform. Towards the end of the performance, actors from the Théâtre du Chêne Noir went on stage in protest, and Béjart's dancers improvised around them. This marked the beginning of an "off" festival within the Avignon Festival.

The conflicts escalate to extremes when the "sportsmen" with anti-Semitic lyrics ("foreigners to the city, dirty like Job on his dung heap, poor like the Wandering Jew, audacious and perverse" when talking about the hippies surrounding the Living Theatre), close to Jean-Pierre Roux, want to cleanse the city of the protesters ("the filthy horde") who will be protected by the gendarmerie.

After the Living Theatre's proposal to stage a performance of Paradise Now in a working-class neighborhood of Avignon was banned, Julian Beck and Judith Malina announced their withdrawal from the festival in an "11-Point Declaration." The seventh point reads: "We are leaving the festival because the time has come for us to finally begin refusing to serve those who want knowledge and the power of art to belong only to those who can pay, those who wish to keep the people in the dark, who work to keep power in the hands of the elites, who wish to control the lives of artists and other people. FOR US TOO, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES."

In 1969, the first musical theatre appeared at the Avignon Festival with the presentation of Arrigo's opera "Orden" in a production by Jorge Lavelli with a libretto by Pierre Bourgeade.

1971 – 1979 directed by Paul Puaux

From 1971 to 1979, Paul Puaux, the designated successor, continued the work begun at the festival, despite criticism that labeled him "a communist schoolteacher without artistic talent." He refused the title of director, preferring the more modest one of "administrator." His main contributions were the creation of the Théâtre Ouvert (Open Theatre) and the expansion of the festival to include artists from afar: Merce Cunningham, Mnouchkine, and Besson. This period also saw the birth of the "Off" festival, with Antoine Vitez's Molière tetralogy and Bob Wilson's Einstein on the Beach.

He left the festival's directorship in 1979 to dedicate himself to the Jean-Vilar house, the festival's historical institution. Béjart, Mnouchkine, and Planchon refused to succeed him, before Bernard Faivre d'Arcier was appointed.

1980 – 1984 under the direction of Bernard Faivre d'Arcier, or the administrative, legal and financial overhaul

In 1980, Paulo Portas moved into the Maison Jean Vilar, and Bernard Faivre d'Arcier took over the direction of the festival, which that same year became an association governed by the law of 1901. Each of the public bodies that subsidize the festival (State, city of Avignon, general council of Vaucluse, regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), is represented on the board of directors which also includes seven qualified individuals.

Under the leadership of the new director Bernard Faivre d'Arcier (1980-1984 and 1993-2003) and Alain Crombecque (1985-1992), the festival professionalized its management and increased its international renown. He was criticized for being a "socialist civil servant who stifled tradition." Crombecque also developed theatrical productions and increased the number of major events, such as Peter Brook's Mahabharata in 1985 and Antoine Vitez's The Satin Slipper in 1987. He was criticized for the expenses related to the Mahabharata, before his critics were reinvigorated by the results. He was also criticized for limiting the number of seats available for performances in the main courtyard to 2,300.

The OFF also became institutionalized and in 1982, under the impetus of Alain Léonard, established an association, "Avignon Public Off", for the coordination and publication of a comprehensive program of Off shows.

Since the creation of Dramatic Arts Week in 1947, almost everything has changed:

Duration: Originally one week long, with a few shows, the festival now takes place every summer for 3 to 4 weeks.
Venues: The festival has spread its performances beyond the legendary Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes, taking place in some twenty specially adapted locations (schools, chapels, gymnasiums, etc.). Some of these venues are located within the city walls of Avignon (inside the ramparts), such as the salt warehouse, while others are outside the walls, like the Paul Giera gymnasium, but they are also scattered throughout the greater Avignon area. Other towns host the festival, including Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in its Chartreuse monastery, Boulbon in its quarry, Vedène and Montfavet in their performance halls, Le Pontet in its auditorium, Cavaillon, and others. In 2013, the festival opened FabricA, a permanent rehearsal space (a hall the same size as the Cour d'honneur stage) and artist residency. Each year, new venues are opened to host the performances of the OFF program.

The nature of the festival: from the beginning, Avignon has been a festival of contemporary theatrical creation. It subsequently opened up to other arts, notably contemporary dance (Maurice Béjart from 1966), mime, puppetry, musical theatre, equestrian shows (Zingaro), street arts, etc.

The festival's initial ambition to bring together the best of French theatre in one place has expanded over the years to reach an international audience, with a growing number of non-French companies coming to perform in Avignon each year.

Although almost everything has changed since "The Dramatic Arts Week" of 1947, and the Festival has lost some of its emblematic strength, according to Robert Abirached, it remains an essential event for an entire profession, while the off-festival has become a "supermarket of theatrical production," in which nine hundred companies seek to find audiences and programmers.

1985 – 1992 directed by Alain Crombecque

1993 – 2002 return of Bernard Faivre d'Arcier

2003: The year of the cancellation

Seven hundred and fifty shows were scheduled for 2003. The strike by performing arts workers—actors, technicians, and others—protesting against the reform of the unemployment insurance system (Assedic), led to the cancellation of the 2003 Avignon Festival and around one hundred Off Festival performances. This struggle began in February 2003 and aimed to protect the specific unemployment benefits system for performing arts professionals. In 2003, the public marched in the streets alongside those working in the performing arts. Numerous regional groups were formed, and a national coordinating body has met regularly ever since.

2004-2013: The duo Archambault and Baudriller

Appointed in January, Faivre d'Arcier's deputies, Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller, took over the festival's management in September 2003 after its cancellation in July. They were reappointed for four years in 2008. In 2010, they managed to convince the board of directors to amend the association's bylaws to obtain an additional half-term. This was justified by the management of the FabricA construction project, which they had made one of the objectives of their second term. While they succeeded in completing the project in one year, they neglected to allocate an operating budget.

They moved their Parisian offices to Avignon and organized the program around one or two associated artists, different each year. Thus, they invited Thomas Ostermeier in 2004, Jan Fabre in 2005, Josef Nadj in 2006, Frédéric Fisbach in 2007, Valérie Dréville and Romeo Castellucci in 2008, Wajdi Mouawad in 2009, Olivier Cadiot and Christoph Marthaler in 2010, Boris Charmatz in 2011, Simon McBurney in 2012, Dieudonné Niangouna and Stanislas Nordey in 2013.

While they manage to grow and rejuvenate their audience, they are not immune to criticism, which peaked during the 2005 edition. Some festival performances saw large numbers of spectators leave their seats during the show, and Le Figaro, in several articles, judged the 2005 edition as a "catastrophic artistic and moral disaster," while France Inter spoke of an "Avignon catastrophe" and La Provence of "public discontent." Libération echoed the criticism in more measured terms, defending the festival. Similar in nature to the famous debate between the "ancients" and the "moderns", this one pitted the proponents of a traditional theatre entirely dedicated to the text and the presence of the actor (including Jacques Julliard or Régis Debray who devoted a book to it), mostly critics from the baby-boom generation, against the younger critics and spectators accustomed to the post-dramatic theatre of after 1968, closer to performance and using the image on stage (these points of view having been brought together in a work coordinated by Georges Banu and Bruno Tackels, Le Cas Avignon 2005).

For the 2006 edition, 133,760 tickets were issued for this 60th Avignon Festival, out of a capacity of 152,000 seats. The attendance rate was therefore 88%, placing this edition on par with the "historic" years (it was 85% in 2005). 15,000 admissions were also recorded for free events such as exhibitions, readings, talks, films, etc. Tickets issued to young people under 25 or students represented an increasing share, reaching 12%. One show boosted festival attendance: Battuta, by Bartabas and his Zingaro Equestrian Theatre, which achieved an attendance rate of 98%: 28,000 spectators in 22 performances, representing more than 20% of the total.

The two associate artists of the 64th edition of the festival, from July 7 to 27, 2010, are the director Christoph Marthaler and the writer Olivier Cadiot.

In 2011, the selection of dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz as associate artist underscored the growing importance of contemporary dance. African dance made its debut in the official program at the 67th edition.

2014: A new director, Olivier Py

Following the non-renewal of his contract at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in April 2011 and a widespread petition in support, the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, appointed Olivier Py as director of the Avignon Festival, making him the first artist to hold this position since Jean Vilar. On December 2, 2011, the festival's board of directors voted to appoint Olivier Py, who took up his post as director on September 1, 2013, at the end of his predecessors' terms.

On March 20, 2014, during a press conference held at the FabricA, he presented the program for the 68th edition of the Avignon Festival, which took place from July 4 to 27, 2014. He outlined the main points of his project for the Avignon Festival:

Youth: spectators and creators of content
International and Mediterranean: five continents featured in the program; a focus on Syria
Touring and decentralizing the 3km route: the show Othello, a variation for three actors, by the Zieu company, was performed on a touring basis in the Vaucluse region
Contemporary poetry and literature: Lydie Dattas and her work will be celebrated
Digital technology, a driver of social and cultural integration, is an important area of development. Building on the FabricA numérique initiative, launched in October 2013 with the think tank Terra Nova, the Avignon Festival and Pascal Keiser (Technocité) are working on an application for the French Tech label.

However, 2014 was a very difficult year for the new director:

- La FabricA: a place without an operating budget.

- Municipal elections of March 2014: the National Front comes out on top in the first round. Olivier Py publicly calls on those who abstained to vote. A flood of hatred and recriminations erupts from all political sides, National Front, UMP and Socialist Party.

- Social movement of July 2014

- Storms of July 2014

La Fabrica

Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller, co-directors of the Avignon Festival in 2004, expressed the need for a rehearsal and residency space for artists invited to create shows at the Avignon Festival. La FabricA, a building designed by architect Maria Godlewska, opened in July 2013. This project, estimated at 10 million euros, was financed by the French government (Ministry of Culture and Communication) and local authorities (City of Avignon, Vaucluse General Council, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region).

Its location, at the crossroads of the Champfleury and Monclar districts, both undergoing urban and social regeneration, inspires dreams of an ambitious project working with marginalized communities. Vincent Baudriller says, "There are billions of things to invent with these groups." However, it is Olivier Py who bears the responsibility of finding the means to operate the building year-round and finance the cultural outreach projects.

Artistic projects are being implemented for the residents of these neighborhoods, particularly those aimed at young people (working with elementary, middle, and high school students), with the goal of reaching all social classes. However, the venue still seems to be searching for its purpose and its place within the city and the Festival.

FabricA consists of:

a rehearsal room: it allows us to work on the shows given in the Cour d'Honneur, which has a capacity of 600 seats;
a private space: it allows artistic teams to live and work in good conditions;
a small technical space: it is a storage space for equipment.

In 2014, the Avignon Festival offered two shows at the FabricA: Orlando by Olivier Py and Henri VI by Thomas Jolly.

EMERGENCE OF THE "OFF" FESTIVAL AND EXPANSION OF THE AVIGNON FESTIVAL

But the Festival reflects the transformation of theatre. Thus, alongside the productions of national drama institutions, theatres, and drama centers, an "off" festival, unofficial and independent, emerged in 1966, initiated by the Théâtre des Carmes, co-founded by André Benedetto and Bertrand Hurault. Initially, and without any intention of creating a movement, André Benedetto's company was joined the following year by other troupes.

The other drama centers and national theaters in turn present their productions (Jorge Lavelli for the Théâtre de l'Odéon, the Maison de la culture de Bourges), while four new venues are used in the city between 1967 and 1971 (cloître des Célestins, Théâtre municipal and chapelle des Pénitents blancs complement the cloître des Carmes), and the festival becomes international, like the thirteen nations present at the first International Youth Meetings organized by the CEMEA, or the presence of the Living Theatre in 1968.

In 1968, through the banning of Gérard Gelas's La Paillasse aux seins nus in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, the "off" made an entry into the Avignon Festival, the troupe being invited by Maurice Béjart to perform gagged on the stage of the Cour d'honneur, and receiving the support of the Living Theatre.

Vilar directed the Festival until his death in 1971. That year, thirty-eight shows were offered on the sidelines of the festival.

From 1971 to 1979, Paul Puaux, the designated heir, continued the work begun.

Professionalization

In 1980, Paulo Portas moved into the Maison Jean Vilar, and Bernard Faivre d'Arcier took over the direction of the festival, which that same year became an association governed by the law of 1901. Each of the public bodies that subsidize the Festival (State, city of Avignon, general council of Vaucluse, regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), is represented on the board of directors which also includes seven qualified individuals.

Under the leadership of the new director Bernard Faivre d'Arcier (1980-1984 and 1993-2003), and Alain Crombecque (1985-1992), the festival professionalized its management and increased its international renown. Crombecque also developed theatrical production and increased the number of major events, such as Peter Brook's Mahabharata in 1985 and Antoine Vitez's The Satin Slipper in 1987.

The Off also became institutionalized and in 1982, under the impetus of Alain Léonard, an association, "Avignon Public Off", was created for the coordination and publication of a comprehensive program of Off shows.

Since the creation of Dramatic Arts Week in 1947, almost everything has changed:

Duration: Originally one week long, with a few shows, the festival now takes place every summer for 3 to 4 weeks.

The venues: The Festival has spread its performances beyond the legendary Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes, to some twenty sites specially adapted for the occasion (schools, chapels, gymnasiums, etc.). Some of these venues are located within the city walls of Avignon, others outside, such as the Paul Giera gymnasium, but all are scattered throughout the Greater Avignon area. Other towns also host the Festival: Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in its Chartreuse monastery, Boulbon in its quarry, Vedène and Montfavet in their performance halls, Le Pontet in its auditorium, Cavaillon, and so on.

Each year, new venues are opened to host the shows of the OFF.

The nature of the festival: from the beginning, Avignon has been a festival of contemporary theatrical creation. It subsequently opened up to other arts, notably contemporary dance (Maurice Béjart from 1966), mime, puppetry, musical theatre, equestrian shows (Zingaro), street arts, etc.
The festival's initial ambition to bring together the best of French theatre in one place has expanded over the years to reach an international audience, with an increasing number of non-French companies coming to perform in Avignon each year.

Although the festival has lost some of its iconic strength, according to Robert Abirached, it remains an essential event for an entire profession, while the OFF has become a "supermarket of theatrical production", in which eight hundred companies seek to find audiences and programmers.

The contemporary festival

The cancellation of the 2003 edition

Seven hundred and fifty shows were scheduled for 2003. The strike by entertainment industry workers—actors, technicians, and others—protesting against the reform of the unemployment insurance system (Assedic), led to the cancellation of the 2003 Avignon Festival and around one hundred Off Festival shows. This struggle began in February 2003 and aimed to protect the specific unemployment benefits system for entertainment industry workers. In 2003, the public marched in the streets alongside those working in the performing arts. Numerous regional groups were formed, and a national coordinating body has met regularly ever since

The revival of the Archambault and Baudriller duo

Appointed in January, Faivre d'Arcier's assistants, Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller, took over the management of the Festival in September 2003 after its cancellation in July.

They re-anchored the Festival's management entirely in Avignon and organized the program around one or two associate artists, different each year. Thus, they invited Thomas Ostermeier in 2004, Jan Fabre in 2005, Josef Nadj in 2006, Frédéric Fisbach in 2007, Valérie Dréville and Romeo Castellucci in 2008, Wajdi Mouawad in 2009, Olivier Cadiot and Christoph Marthaler in 2010, Boris Charmatz in 2011, and Simon McBurney in 2012.

While they succeeded in growing and rejuvenating their audience, they were not immune to criticism, which reached its peak during the 2005 edition. During some Festival performances, large numbers of spectators walked out, and Le Figaro, in several articles, deemed the 2005 edition a "catastrophic artistic and moral disaster," while France Inter referred to it as an "Avignon catastrophe" and La Provence to "public discontent." Libération echoed the criticism in more measured terms, defending the Festival. Similar in nature to the famous debate between the "ancients" and the "moderns", this one pitted the proponents of a traditional theatre entirely dedicated to the text and the presence of the actor (including Jacques Julliard or Régis Debray who devoted a book to it), mostly critics from the baby-boom generation, against the younger critics and spectators accustomed to the post-dramatic theatre of after 1968, closer to performance and using the image on stage (these points of view having been brought together in a work coordinated by Georges Banu and Bruno Tackels, Le Cas Avignon 2005).

Following the 2003 conflict with intermittent workers, which divided the 700 Off Festival troupes—some of whom chose to continue performing despite the tensions and the cancellation of the Avignon Festival—the Off Festival itself split and had to restructure. Four hundred companies and most of the Off Festival's theaters, representing nearly 500 organizations, joined forces to become Avignon Festival et Compagnies (AF&C), under the presidency of André Benedetto, definitively replacing the former association of Alain Léonard the following year. In 2009, the Off Festival exceeded 980 daily performances and events (theater, musical theater, dance, café-theater, puppetry, circus, etc.), an increase of 11% each year since the early 2000s.

In 2011, Hortense Archambault and Vicent Baudriller chose to associate the dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz as an associate artist for the edition, which underlines the growing place of contemporary dance11.

2006: 60th edition

For the 2006 edition, 133,760 tickets were issued for this 60th Avignon Festival, out of a capacity of 152,000. The attendance rate was therefore 88%, placing this edition on par with the "historic" years (it was 85% in 2005). An additional 15,000 admissions were recorded for free events such as exhibitions, readings, talks, films, etc. Tickets issued to young people under 25 or students represented an increasing share, reaching 12%.

One show boosted attendance at the festival: Battuta, by Bartabas and his Zingaro Equestrian Theatre, which recorded an attendance rate of 98%: 28,000 spectators in 22 performances, or more than 20% of the total.

"The Money Changers"

"Actors are not dogs!" exclaimed Gérard Philipe in the title of a famous article. Any reflection on the Avignon Off Festival, what it has become and what might become of it, should bear this sharp, sanctifying phrase.

Thus begins the reflection undertaken again in 2006 by Jean Guerrin, actor, director, founder and director of the Montreuil theatre school, a regular participant in the Off Festival and a guest of the In Festival in 1980 with Shakespeare's Henry VI and Brecht's The Wedding. In an interview with Vincent Cambier for the association Les Trois Coups, he denounces the "ongoing scandal" of the conditions under which actors, companies, directors, and playwrights are accommodated in the Off Festival's venues—conditions corrupted by the greed of the venue owners despite the Festival administration's efforts to improve the situation. The frenetic pace of performances in the same venue leads to a grueling schedule of setup and teardown, or worse: the mutilation of the texts. The sheer cost of securing a performance space rarely allows companies to pay their actors. These conditions are carefully concealed from the public, whose financial support must be protected. For Jean Guerrin, the solutions lie in "recognizing the specific case of the actor," allowing for treatment equivalent to that of technicians and stage managers who are systematically paid, unlike the actors, and in establishing a "regulatory and control body over the management conditions of venues," even if it means refusing to award a label to the most indecent ones, so that "the Festival does not die from its uncontrolled growth, like those beautiful stars that collapsed under their own weight; the situation [demands] a sudden surge of action to avoid the overstatement of the word 'revolution'.".

The 2010 edition

The two associate artists for this edition are director Christoph Marthaler and writer Olivier Cadiot. The 64th edition of the Festival took place from July 7 to 27, 2010. The Off Festival was held from July 8 to 31.

Documentary collection of Maison Jean-Vilar

The work of Jean Vilar and all 3,000 events programmed at the Avignon Festival since its inception in 1947 are accessible at the Maison Jean Vilar, located in Avignon at 8, rue Mons, Montée Paul-Puaux (library, video library, exhibitions, database, etc.). The Association Jean Vilar publishes the journal Cahiers Jean Vilar, which places the thinking of the creator of the Avignon Festival within a resolutely contemporary perspective by analyzing the role of theatre in society and the challenges of cultural policy.

Fernand-Michaud Fund

In 1988, the National Library of France acquired more than 50,000 negatives and slides that photographer Fernand Michaud produced during the Avignon Festivals from 1970 to 1986.

2015: 50th edition of the OFF Festival

The Avignon Off Festival brings together hundreds of shows, from 10 a.m. to midnight in more than a hundred venues and theatres including the stage of the Laurette, Avignon's permanent theatre.

Official website

Official website of the Off Festival

The notebooks of the Maison Jean-Vilar no. 105 - Avignon, July 1968

Photos of the Avignon Festival are available on Gallica

Source: Wikipedia