Avignon Festival IN 2026: Beginner Guide and Top Shows

The Avignon Festival: two festivals in one

According to festival-avignon.com, the Festival IN (the official festival) is a curated selection of 47 productions chosen by Tiago Rodrigues, staged in heritage venues: the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes (1,942 seats), the Carrière de Boulbon (15 km south-west, created for Peter Brook’s Mahabharata in 1985), the Cloître des Célestins, the FabricA, and the Opéra Grand Avignon. Artists are invited and frequently co-produced. The Festival IN was born in 1947 when Jean Vilar staged Shakespeare’s Richard II in the Cour d’honneur during an exhibition organised by the poet René Char — a founding gesture: making theatre a popular art form, demanding yet accessible.

The Festival OFF is an entirely different beast. Born in 1966 when André Benedetto presented his work outside the official programme, it celebrates its 60th edition in 2026. It is an independent festival with no centralised artistic direction: 1,780 shows, 1,432 companies, 141 theatres, 27,000 performances. Any company can register. The Carte OFF (€5 to €21 depending on status, minimum 30% discount) makes tickets accessible from €5. According to ARTCENA, the Mediterranean is the OFF 2026’s guest of honour, with a “Lumière” project bringing together artists from Spain, Italy, Morocco, Palestine, Turkey and Cyprus.

Good news for 2026: for the second consecutive year, the IN and OFF share exactly the same dates (4–25 July) — the first complete synchronisation in 25 years. One trip covers both.

Highlights

• Festival IN: 47 curated productions in UNESCO-listed venues, tickets €7–€64
• Festival OFF: 1,780 independent shows, complete freedom, from €5 with the Carte OFF
• 2026: double anniversary (80th IN + 60th OFF), both at the same dates for the 2nd time
• 136,000 tickets at the IN — a historic record, 15,000 more than in 2025

Maldoror — Julien Gosselin (Cour d’honneur, 4–12 July)

Maldoror officially opens the 80th edition on 4 July 2026 in the Cour d’honneur — the Festival’s mythical venue, 1,800 m², thirty metres of medieval stone walls. Julien Gosselin, who made his mark at Avignon in 2016 with 2666 (Roberto Bolaño, 9 hours), returns with a dialogue between Bolaño and Lautréamont around the theme of human violence. The production blends theatre, cinema and performance over approximately five hours. According to SceneWeb, it is one of the most anticipated productions of the edition.

Highlights

• Official opening show in the Festival’s most iconic venue
• Julien Gosselin, one of the most talked-about French directors of his generation
• Total theatre blending live cinema and performance — a rare sensory experience

NÔT and Le Pas du Monde — Two historic firsts at the Cour d’honneur

NÔT, by Marlène Monteiro Freitas (companion artist of the 80th edition), is inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. A Cape Verdean choreographer and winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale 2018, she translates “that flow of words that generate, cross and contradict each other” into movement. Duration: 1h45. Dates: 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 July at 10pm.

Le Pas du Monde marks a historic first: according to festival-avignon.com, this is the first time a circus show has entered the Cour d’honneur (in 1967, Jean Vilar had introduced dance to the space). Collectif XY brings together 22 acrobats who “compose landscapes and elements in perpetual motion”. Dates: 22–25 July.

Highlights

• NÔT: dance and choreography accessible to all, perfect for a first-time experience
• Le Pas du Monde: contemporary circus, visually stunning, no language barrier
• Two historic firsts in the world’s most iconic festival venue

1, 2, 3 Poquelin — tg STAN (Carrière de Boulbon, 13–25 July)

The Flemish company tg STAN presents the final Molière trilogy in one night at the Carrière de Boulbon — an open-air site 15 km from Avignon, set amid garrigue scrubland and limestone cliffs. Eight actors play forty characters: Le Malade imaginaire, Le Médecin malgré lui, L’Avare, Le Mariage forcé. Five hours of festive Molière in a magical setting. According to Presse Agence, it is one of the standout choices in Tiago Rodrigues’s programme.

Highlights

• Molière made accessible and festive by tg STAN, pioneers of contemporary theatre
• The Carrière de Boulbon: one of the Festival’s most breathtaking venues, under the stars
• A complete evening: picnic on site, marathon show, shuttle back at dawn

Korean: the 2026 guest language — a historic Asian first

Tiago Rodrigues announced Korean as the guest language on 21 July 2025, during a public meeting. It is the fourth guest language of the Festival, after English (2023), Spanish (2024) and Arabic (2025). According to The Korea Herald, the choice marks the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and South Korea. The Hangul alphabet, created in the 15th century by King Sejong to democratise knowledge, is cited by the Festival as a symbol of the “revolutionary power of language”.

The nine Korean productions represent approximately 20% of the 2026 programme — an unprecedented proportion for a single nation in the Festival’s history. Here are the three not to miss:

Cuckoo — Jaha Koo (Gymnase lycée Mistral, 5–8 July, 55 min). A dialogue with three Cuckoo-brand rice cookers, tracing the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Jaha Koo, 42, is the first Asian recipient and the youngest person ever to receive the International Ibsen Award 2026 — the Nobel Prize equivalent for theatre. Short duration (55 min), English and French surtitles, tickets €10–€35. The ideal entry point.

Oiseau — Julie Deliquet, with Isabelle Huppert and Lee Hye-young (Cour d’honneur, 15–16 July). Bilingual reading-performance (French/Korean) of the first chapter of We Do Not Part by Han Kang, 2024 Nobel Laureate in Literature. The novel addresses the massacre of 3 April 1948 on Jeju Island. According to The Korea Herald, Isabelle Huppert facing Korean actress Lee Hye-young creates a meeting of two theatrical traditions. Han Kang will take part in a conversation with Laure Adler on 12 July.

Neige, neige, neige — Lee Jaram (Opéra Grand Avignon, 17–23 July). Contemporary pansori adapted from Tolstoy’s Master and Man. Lee Jaram performs alone on stage, with a fan and the rhythm of a drum. Pansori is a millennia-old Korean form of musical storytelling, recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. A surprising bridge between Korea and Russia.

Highlights

• Cuckoo: the most accessible Korean show (55 min, English surtitles, universal theme)
• Oiseau: Isabelle Huppert reads Nobel laureate Han Kang — a unique encounter at the Cour d’honneur
• Lee Jaram: discover traditional pansori in a contemporary setting

Tickets, discount cards, accommodation and getting there from the UK

Tickets: according to festival-avignon.com, online sales opened on 18 April 2026 on fnacspectacles.com (from 10am CET) and festival-avignon.com (from 1pm CET). New seats are released every Wednesday at 10am. Physical box offices are open Tuesday to Saturday from 20 June (9:30am–2pm then 4pm–6:30pm). A box office opens at each venue 1 hour before curtain up for any remaining seats — a viable strategy on weekdays.

Discount cards: the Carte 3 clés costs €1 for under-26s, students, social benefit recipients and disabled visitors — it gives access to tickets at €10–€25 (instead of €7–€64) and 5% off in the shop. The Carte Festival costs €25 (€1 for jobseekers and performing arts professionals) and offers 25% off all tickets.

Accommodation: a double room in a hotel costs around £115/night during the Festival — nearly double the out-of-festival rate. According to Malango.fr, 80% of accommodation is fully booked before March–April. Alternative: staying outside the ramparts (Les Angles, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon) halves the cost, with Bustival shuttle buses on reservation.

Getting there from the UK: take the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord (~2h20), then a TGV to Avignon TGV station (2h37–2h53) — total journey around 5 hours. SNCF/Ouigo Paris–Avignon fares start from €19. Alternatively, EasyJet and Ryanair offer direct flights from London Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester to Marseille Provence (1h50) and Nîmes Garons (1h55) — typically £40–£120 return.

Local transport: the walled city is pedestrianised during the Festival — use the Park & Ride car parks (P+R Île Piot, 1,100 spaces; P+R Italiens, 1,454 spaces) with free shuttles. Vélopop’: 300 electric bikes across 29 Grand Avignon stations.

Weather: Avignon in July averages 27°C with peaks of 32–36°C. The Festival has shifted some shows to 11am to avoid the afternoon heat. Performances at the Cour d’honneur begin at 10pm to benefit from the cool evening air. Bring a hat, sun cream and a reusable water bottle — public drinking fountains are available throughout the city.

Highlights

• Carte 3 clés (€1): essential for under-26s and those on lower incomes
• Book accommodation before March: 80% fully booked by then in 2025
• Free events: Café des idées (Cloître Saint-Louis), Les Belles Heures (10–11 July, Maison Jean Vilar)