Jazz music
Every year for many years now, the Méjan chapel in Arles has played host to an intimate event: Jazz in Arles. Despite this, the quality of the event and the reputation of the artists who come to perform cannot contain the aura of the meeting, which is internationally renowned. For ten days, an eclectic public can discover the best musicians of the moment, in an atmosphere conducive to direct exchanges between the speakers and their audience. The large volumes of this former church, now desecrated, lend themselves perfectly to this type of music, offering a grandiose setting and impeccable acoustics.
One musical project follows another at the Chapelle du Méjan, taking neophytes and enlightened amateurs alike on a veritable journey to the heart of jazz.
The line-ups reflect the vitality of today's jazz scene, which has revealed many new talents, such as American pianist-composer Carla Bley, Jean-Marc Larché, clarinettist Élodie Pasquier and many others who have come to perform in Arles.
An event that unites enthusiasts and beginners around a high-level encounter.
World music in Arles
Every summer in July since 1996, the city of Arles has been in tune with Les Suds. This week-long event brings the ancient city to life with concerts of world music, as well as masterclasses in song, dance, music and the art of living. For six days and seven nights, from 9 a.m. to 4 a.m., a succession of scenic encounters will take place in the heart of historic monuments listed as Unesco World Heritage sites, as well as in many other symbolic locations, such as the Parc des Ateliers, Place Voltaire and Espace Van Gogh. There are no set rules for this festival, apart from a demand for the artistic quality of the events on offer. In fact, there's no problem in this respect, as the speakers are all renowned artists and teachers. It's worth noting that the workshops and masterclasses (around forty over the course of the week) are open to all, amateurs and professionals, neophytes and experts alike. Far from being elitist, the Festival des Suds is unashamedly popular.
It's a major event that all music fans look forward to every year.
International Photography Encounters
Here is another event of worldwide scope that takes place every year, from the beginning of July to the end of September, in the ancient city of Arles, and this, for fifty years. Created in 1970 by the famous Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette, the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles celebrated, in fact, their fiftieth anniversary in 2020, in a somewhat special context.
This great mass of the image allows to discover, in different emblematic places of the city (sometimes visitable only on this occasion), unpublished productions of photographers from around the world. Exhibitions, often realized in collaboration with museums and French and foreign institutions, which highlight the work of leading artists, but also of unknown photographers and journalists.
In total, tens of thousands of visitors have been able to appreciate these works, but also to attend conferences or to learn about photography, during these fifty years.
The Rencontres internationales de la photographie continue all year long at the Musée Réattu, with several hundred works offered or acquired from photographers. A collection that allows us to discover or rediscover the images of great names in photography, such as Doisneau, William Klein, Man Ray or Jean-Pierre Sudre, to name but a few.
Dance, in the Alpilles DNA
It's no secret that we love to party, both in the Camargue and in the Alpilles. Originating in the rural world, this need to celebrate the passing of the seasons, but also the great events of life: weddings, births, communions... deaths too, translates into an extremely rich repertoire of traditional songs and dances.
Once in danger of disappearing, regional folk dances now seem to be saved, thanks to the many schools, associations and festivals that dot the region throughout the year.
It's difficult to give a precise description of these folk dances, because on the one hand, there's an enormous variety of them, linked to everyday circumstances, seduction, professions... but on the other hand, all these dances have local variations.
The best thing to do is to discover the traditional groups that perform in every town and village, all year round. Don't miss, for example, the Fiesto Vierginenco, in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, on the last Sunday in July; a festival created in 1903 by Frédéric Mistral to celebrate young girls wearing traditional costume for the first time. All day long, song, music and dance follow one another without interruption.
