FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE CARILLON DE PERPIGNAN

Astonishing! Since 2003, in the heat of summer, Perpignan has played host to an unusual carillon festival. Every Thursday from mid-July to the end of August, this unique festival invites amateurs and the curious to come and listen to carillonneurs from all over the world. Each year, a wide range of musical adaptations for carillon are presented around a theme. These free concerts are organized on a carillon of 46 bells, the work of the Amédée Bollée & Fils foundry in Le Mans, which was presented at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1878 before being installed in the bell tower between the Saint-Jean-le-Vieux church and the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Cathedral in 1885. This four-octave bell ensemble, played on a wooden keyboard, has been a listed historic monument since 1990. The aim of the Perpignan International Carillon Festival is to discover the oldest of the great French carillons, to promote the carillon as a musical instrument in its own right, and to invite carillonneurs from France, Europe and abroad to program top-quality concerts.
The ideal place to listen to these wonderfully surprising concerts is, between earth and sky, on the Cathedral square.