10 Best Festivals in France

Nice Carnival is one of the world’s top 3 carnivals alongside Rio and Venice, but with its own traditions and mythology. It’s the biggest cultural event on the Côte d’Azur calendar with spectacular parades of giant papier-mâché sculptures. It’s a huge street party with fun for the entire family and vibrant dance, music and street art troupes.

An immense carnival king sculpture reigns over the fortnight-long festivities, guiding the procession of 100 or more colossal heads in a series of parades. These giant heads symbolise politicians, celebrities and occasionally satirise contentious social issues. The carnival closes with fireworks and the burning of the Carnival King in a mock ceremony.

The Cannes Film Festival premieres films of all genres every year for 2 weeks in May. It’s one of the film industry’s most illustrious annual events. The symbol of the storied festival and its most prestigious award is the Palme d’Or prize for Best Feature Film.

Cannes Film Festival is only open to film industry professionals and journalists but there are public screenings on the beach nightly operating on a first-come, first-served basis. You can also join the crowd on the street outside the festival to catch a glimpse of celebrities as they arrive on the red carpet.

The Bastille Day Parade commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, sparking the French Revolution. French National Day has been marked ever since as one of Europe’s most spectacular military parades, followed by fireworks, concerts and parties.

The Bastille Day Parade marches down the Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concord. Huge crowds create a festive atmosphere along the route. Elite politicians and dignitaries attend the televised event, involving the French air force, navy, cavalry and army regiments in their immaculate ceremonial dress. French National Day celebrations continue in the evening with fireworks off the Eiffel Tower and parties around in the city organised by Paris fire stations.

The Festival of Lights is the most dazzling festival in Lyon. As the sun goes down the city lights up like a magical fairytale. Every corner of the city shines with artistic light installations in public spaces.

This festival began in 1852, when candles were used to symbolise the victory of light over darkness. Now, the festival draws millions of visitors to Lyon for the special experience. Everything from window candles to displays of fire, creative art installations and hundreds of the city’s monuments are lit up with colourful and creative light shows, LEDs and laser beams. The Festival of Lights runs for 4 nights of the year in early December.

The International Kite Festival in Berck-sur-Mer is Europe’s biggest kite festival that will impress the entire family. Every year in April, the skies come alive with flying colours in this little town on France’s Opal Coast. Kite experts and enthusiasts skilfully fly impressive creations of all sizes representing comic heroes, animals and strange and unusual figures, vying to outdo each other in dexterous flying manoeuvres and impressive designs.

The festival takes place over a week with participation of over 20 countries. Teams prepare impossible-seeming synchronised shows, selecting their kites according to the wind to give the crowds the best possible show. Every second year the festival hosts the International Kite Championships of the World, appointing the world champion.

World Music Day, or Fête de la Musique, is celebrated around the world, but it started in France in 1985. The idea was to make music accessible to everyone with free concerts and street musicians. The festival has grown in France to host some 18,000 concerts on the day by some 5 million amateur musicians all around the country.

Choirs, rock bands, folk music, drum circles and all kinds of international music acts fill stages, bars, cafes and the streets in a festive atmosphere. On World Music Day, French bars stay open later than usual and the day coincides with the summer solstice so you can enjoy many of the concerts late into the evening.

Menton Lemon Festival is a weird and wonderful spectacle that’s hard to forget. The festival marks the end of winter and the start of spring. But since 1934, Menton has been doing this with giant quirky sculptures made of lemons that parade through the town on floats accompanied by acrobats, performers and music in a festive, carnival atmosphere.

This unique and family-friendly event brings huge crowds to see what the Menton Lemon Festival will create with 15 tons of lemons for its various parades. You can visit the giant zesty sculptures in the Biovès Gardens throughout the festival. An orchid festival runs concurrently with the Lemon Festival in Palais de l’Europe. Both have free entry.

During Saint Nicolas Celebrations the French enjoy a traditional cream-filled pastry, la galette des rois, while in some areas you’ll find lots of spiced gingerbread cookies and other special Christmas treats. Saint Nicolas is the patron saint of children, sailors and the eastern region of Lorraine which has a special version of Saint Nicolas Celebrations on 6 December.

For the celebrations in Lorraine, children leave out their shoes on the night of 5 December to find them filled with presents and sweets in the morning. The city of Nancy celebrates the day with a spectacular parade with floats, acrobats and musical performers throwing tons of sweets into the crowds.

The Pentecost Feria is a bull-themed festival held in the historic city of Nîmes. For a week over Pentecost weekend, the city comes alive with colourful parades, music and dance performances, wandering street musicians and wild parties. Improvised bars spring up around the city, people perform Spanish dances and it even features France’s own running of the bulls.

Local, bloodless bullfights take place in the Nîmes arena, an atmospheric Roman amphitheatre. In the ‘course camarguaise’, people compete to snatch a ribbon from between the bull’s horns with their bare hands, and the bull is unharmed. This famous Spanish-flavoured festival brings over 1 million visitors to Nîmes.

During the Festival of Avignon, the city becomes a major international hub for theatre and performing arts. Founded in 1947, the Avignon Festival puts on scores of main productions as well as hundreds of ‘off’ shows, plus readings, exhibitions, debates and screenings. Some 80% of the shows are new creations or premieres.

The main venue is the legendary 14th-century gothic Palais des Papes or Palace of the Popes, a UNESCO heritage site. Many more heritage, as well as surprising ad hoc spaces, are transformed into original theatrical spaces all around the city for the festival, from city squares, churches and gardens to sports centres and garages. The Festival of Avignon takes place in July.