What Festival d'Avignon does

Festival d'Avignon is a French non-profit association (Association de gestion du Festival d'Avignon, governed under loi 1901) founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar to produce one of the world's leading annual performing arts festivals. The 80th edition runs 4-25 July 2026 in Avignon, featuring theatre, dance, circus, music, and visual arts across a portfolio of historic venues including the Cour d'honneur du palais des Papes, Cloître Saint-Louis, Cloître des Célestins, La FabricA (a dedicated production space), and Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon. The organisation is directed by Tiago Rodrigues with Clémentine Aubry as deputy director, and operates with 223 permanent employees supplemented by annual seasonal and technical recruitment. The Festival is a member of Syndeac and actively advocates for French public cultural funding.

The Festival's revenue model is a hybrid of ticket sales (€10-45 per ticket depending on category, seat, and cardholder status), subscription-style discount cards (Carte Festival and Carte 3 clés), gift cards (minimum €30), merchandise, and corporate/foundation sponsorship. Ticketing is distributed through an omnichannel stack: a PCI-DSS-compliant online platform with Paybox (Verifone) payment processing, an iOS/Android mobile app, telephone sales, on-site box offices at Cloître Saint-Louis and performance venues, and the Fnac retail network across France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Digital tickets are delivered to Apple/Google/Samsung wallets. The core technology is essentially a festival commerce and content platform rather than a standalone SaaS product; the platform underwrites ticketing, festival itinerary planning, and audience communications.

The Festival serves three primary constituencies: general public audiences attending performances and debates, artists and performing arts professionals seeking international visibility and touring opportunities, and partner cultural institutions (subsidised venues, national theatres, and companies) that co-produce or host productions. Anchor sponsor Fondation Crédit Coopératif (main sponsor since 2011) and dance partner Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels provide financial backing, while media partnerships with France Culture, ARTE, France Inter, and Libération drive earned media reach. Programming is structured around signature strands (Café des idées daily debates, La matinale morning encounters, Making Waves youth radio, Les Rencontres Recherche et Création, Les Midis de Culture with France Culture) and the 80th edition's guest language is Korean, supported by KAMS and the Korean Cultural Centre.

Name

Festival d'Avignon

Legal name

Association de gestion du Festival d'Avignon

Website

https://festival-avignon.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1947

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Festival d'Avignon is a non-profit association founded in 1947 that produces one of the world's leading annual performing arts festivals in Avignon, France, serving general audiences, artists, and cultural institutions through ticketed performances, digital platforms, and co-productions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Avignon

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Ticket Sales: Sale of entry rights to performances through online platform, telephone, box offices, and Fnac network
2. Festival Cards and Discount Cards: Festival Card and Carte 3 clés offering reductions on tickets, boutique, and bookstore purchases
3. Gift Cards: Gift cards valid for online, phone, or box office purchases for tickets, boutique items, and discount cards; minimum 30 euro value
4. Merchandise and Boutique: Online shop and physical boutique at Place de l'Horloge selling Festival products and merchandise

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Festival d'Avignon fundamentally produces and presents an annual summer programme of performing arts (theatre, dance, circus, music, visual arts) staged across multiple historic venues in Avignon, France. It sells tickets, discount cards (Carte Festival, Carte 3 clés), gift cards (Carte Cadeau) and Festival-branded merchandise through its own website, mobile app, phone line, physical box offices, the Fnac retail network, and a physical boutique, supported by ancillary programming such as Café des idées debates, La matinale gatherings, Les Midis de Culture radio shows and youth programmes.

Product overview

Festival d'Avignon is a major performing arts festival founded in 1947, operating primarily as an annual summer event (typically July) across multiple historic venues in Avignon, France. Its core product is the Festival itself—a programme of theatre, dance, circus, and multidisciplinary performances—augmented by a digital ticketing platform, a mobile app for iOS/Android, and various card-based products (Carte Festival, Carte 3 clés, Carte Cadeau). The Festival also operates an online boutique for merchandise and publishes audiovisual content. Key programme strands include the Café des idées debates, La matinale morning gatherings, Les Midis de Culture midday radio programmes, Making Waves Avignon youth radio series, and the Rencontres Recherche et Création research conference. The 80th edition (2026) features Korean as the guest language.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Festival d'Avignon App Mobile application for iOS and Android that allows festival attendees to purchase tickets, store digital tickets, build a personalised festival itinerary, and receive notifications about new ticket releases and seat availability.
• Online Ticketing System Web-based ticket purchasing platform on festival-avignon.com that supports credit card payments via Paybox, delivers digital tickets to user accounts and mobile wallets, and enables seat selection for assigned venues.
• Carte Festival Discount card offering reduced-price tickets to Festival performances as well as discounts at the Festival boutique and bookstore; benefits are valid from the date of purchase and are not retroactive.
• Carte 3 clés Discount card providing reduced ticket prices and discounts at the Festival boutique and bookstore, with deeper ticket reductions than Carte Festival; benefits apply from the date of purchase.
• Carte Cadeau (Gift Card) Gift card redeemable for tickets, Festival discount cards and other purchases; minimum value €30, valid through 31 December 2026, and usable in-store, online and by phone.
• Online Boutique / Librairie E-commerce store selling Festival-branded merchandise and books, with shipping calculated by package weight and delivery zone; delivery quotes available on request for certain items.

Quantifiable outcome

• Sustained public attendance and engagement over nearly 80 editions

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• KAMS (Korea Arts Management Service)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Main partner for the 80th edition's guest language programme featuring Korean arts. Works to connect Korean artists with international stages, supporting the guest language initiative after 28 years of exchange with Seoul Performing Arts Festival.
• Korean Cultural CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Public institution under Korea's Ministry of Culture promoting Korean culture in France. Collaborated on the Korean literature library exhibition at Cloître Saint-Louis as part of 140th anniversary of Korea-France diplomatic relations.
• Prospero NEW (New European Wave)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026First European platform dedicated to artistic emergence in theatre, co-funded by Creative Europe 2025-2028. 22 partners including theatres and festivals across Europe supporting over 200 artists through touring, co-productions, residencies, and mentorship.
• Various French Theatres and National InstitutionscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Co-production partnerships with Théâtre National de la Danse (Chaillot), CND, MC93, Charleroi danse, Sadler's Wells, Tanztheater Wuppertal, and other major European venues for dance productions.
• France CultureminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026French public radio station partnering on Café des Idées debates and Les Midis de Culture radio programming.
• ARTEminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026European TV channel partnering on Retour sur images archival programme featuring talks with artists and historians.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Festival OFF d'Avignon: Independent, decentralized parallel festival running alongside Festival d'Avignon since 1966, featuring hundreds of fringe performances. Related by geography and audience overlap, but operates as a separate, less curated event ecosystem.

Others

• Sadler's Wells: London's flagship dance venue and producer, partner of Festival d'Avignon for co-productions including Boris Charmatz's Muette. Comparable as a European dance presentation/co-production ecosystem participant, but functions primarily as a year-round venue rather than a festival.

Direct peers

• Adelaide Festival: Biennial Australian multi-arts festival founded in 1960, presenting theatre, dance, music, and visual arts with strong international programming. Comparable in curated multi-arts scope and international artist commissioning model.
• Holland Festival: Amsterdam's flagship international performing arts festival founded in 1947, presenting theatre, dance, opera, and music. Closely comparable in founding era, European public-festival model, and curated multi-arts programming.
• Festival d'Aix-en-Provence: Renowned annual performing arts festival in Aix-en-Provence focused on opera and music, founded in 1948. Comparable as a French flagship summer festival with public-service mission, public funding, and international co-production model.
• Salzburg Festival: Prestigious annual summer festival of opera, drama, and orchestral music founded in 1920. Comparable in elite tier, multi-week concentrated programming, historic European venues, and international brand recognition among performing arts festivals.
• Festival d'Automne à Paris: Major Parisian multi-disciplinary arts festival running from September to December, covering theatre, dance, music, and visual arts. Comparable in curatorial ambition, French public funding model, and international artist programming.
• Edinburgh International Festival: Edinburgh's flagship annual summer performing arts festival founded in 1947, presenting theatre, dance, opera, and music across multiple venues. Closest direct peer to Festival d'Avignon in scale, heritage, multi-arts programming, and international prestige.
• Wiener Festwochen: Vienna's annual international performing arts festival featuring theatre, dance, opera, and music. Comparable as a major European summer festival with public funding, international co-productions, and historic venue use.
• Berliner Festspiele: Berlin's umbrella organization running Theatertreffen and other performing arts festivals featuring international theatre and dance. Comparable as a major European publicly funded festival presenter with co-production and international artist exchange.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/festival-d'avignon

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Festival d'Avignon