Nature raises the curtain this summer on new performances. To the thousand sounds, rustles, and songs of the living world are added human melodies in unusual locations. Troupes of actors, orchestras, visual artists, as well as circus performers and acrobats, take over fields, pine forests, mountains, cliffs, valleys, and other features of the French landscape to present their art in the open air. These are no longer street arts, but rural arts... For these budding naturalists, summer tours no longer take them from theaters to concert halls, but from meadows after the hay harvest to the late-season beach. For some, it's simply a chance for a beautiful escape. But most of the time, this rural relocation also stems from a desire to push the boundaries of live performance, with a reflection on the links between art and nature, motivated by the broader wish to reinvent our relationship with the living world. Covid has accelerated this desire to get outdoors, a trend reminiscent of the early days of ancient theater when dramas unfolded under the open sky. New partnerships are emerging, and creations specifically designed for these extraordinary settings are being developed. We've seen farms open their barns to artists' companies, backroads welcome climbing guitarists, lakes transform into ephemeral stages, and cows watch herds of spectators wander through the tall grass. These truly open-air creations are booming. Audiences are embracing them, clamoring for more, and equipping themselves... Backpacks, hiking boots, water bottles, blankets, rain ponchos... and why not tick removers! For an extra dose of thrills and unique experiences. Live performance has never been more aptly named.

Across the fields…

The show we're talking about:
It is the theatrical experience that has wildened the 2023 edition of the Avignon festival, and which has since been moving from one region to another in France. Founder of the collective 49 701, Clara Hédouin imagined her first "theater-hike" based on Jean Giono's story "Que ma joie demeure", a rural novel full of poetry published in 1935 in which the writer announces before its time the loss of meaning in the farmer's job. Lasting seven hours (yes!), with a departure at dawn, the pilgrimage was organized for the first time on the heights of the village of Barbentane, about twenty kilometers from the City of the Popes, in the deafening song of the cicadas, guided by ten actors leading the audience through meadows, clearings and forest. A group of peasants struck by a mysterious sadness meet a stranger on the edge of the forest who will transform their relationship with the land. Beaujolais, Ariège, Île de France, Charente, etc. a nomadic performance that adapts to the relief, the vegetation, and of course the weather of the day, sometimes even cancelling at the last minute in the face of a threatening storm. Hay fever please refrain.

Next date:
September 21, for the Avant-scène festival, in Cognac, in a still secret location. www.avantscene.com

Clara Hédouin ©Quentin Chevrier

Clara Hédouin ©Quentin Chevrier

Clara Hédouin ©Quentin Chevrier

Clara Hédouin ©Quentin Chevrier

In the forest…

The artist we are talking about:
Since Olivia Gay imagined this immersive concert format, an hour and a half of concert in the middle of the forest by a cello-piano duo, her name has become inseparable from trees. The show, entitled "The Silence of the Forest" in echo to the work of Antonín Dvořák, is also a reference to the disaster of the mega-fires that France has recently experienced. Now performed all over France, the show was born from a deep desire to raise public awareness of the challenges of the forest. The cellist is accompanied alternately by pianists Célia Oneto Bensaid and Aurélien Pontier. They perform works by Edward Elgar, Antonín Dvořák, Gabriel Fauré, etc. Olivia Gay, who has since become an ambassador for the ONF-Agir pour la forêt endowment fund, has launched a series of concerts open free of charge to the public in seven “exceptional forests,” an ONF label. Each concert is preceded by a guided tour by a forester and a conference on violin-making woods.

Next date :

On August 1st, a concert of "The Silence of the Forest" will take place in the Parc du Pian in Menton, followed by a twilight stroll. This event is in the Alpes-Maritimes region. Eight other performances, from the Vosges to the Indre, are scheduled until the end of the summer. Reservations and meeting points can be found at olivia-gay.com

Olivia Gay (c) Patrick Fouque

Concert in the forest by Olivia Gay 2024 (c) Elsa Laurent

On the water…

The show we're talking about:
It all started with the love of a musician from the North, Cécile Wouters, for the "betchète", a traditional flat-bottomed river boat allowing freshwater sailors to navigate almost anywhere. It is now the musicians of PianO du Lac who crisscross France with their proud boats. Around sixty concerts have been given since the creation of PianO du Lac. The principle? A pianist (Robin Rivoire) and a violinist (Anouk Morel) play a whole repertoire on a raft, ranging from jazz to world music, such as Brazilian forro, while the audience sitting on the grass on the bank enjoys the show. Beware of the tide and the splashes on the beautiful piano when the orchestra sometimes ventures to the seaside... After several dates at the beginning of the summer, a new show "Marinero" takes over in July, with Nathalie Morazin on the piano and Samuel Arnoux on vocals and accordion.

Next date:

On July 20th and 21st, "Marinero" will be performed on Lake Kir in Dijon, then will set sail on the 23rd at the Breuil pond in Bourbon-Lancy, Saône-et-Loire, before heading off to finish the month at Lake Saint-Clément (Allier), Lake Chambon (Puy-de-Dôme), and Lake Cisba (Aveyron). polpoproductions.com and pianodulac.eu

PianO du Lac_Festival des PianOs_2022_©etienne renzo

Piano du lac 2020_Melting Flotte show 2020© Loïc Mollet copy

In the mountains…

The festival we are talking about:
The high Corsican mountains as a backdrop, who can do better? Arti Muntagnera was born from the desire to create, on the Isle of Beauty, encounters between the show, the visual arts and the public. In the open air, with their feet in the sand, the grass or on the rock, spectators are invited to follow this "transhumance of the arts" from the coast to the high plateaus. The artists themselves use whatever means they have to arrive, on foot, by canoe, by boat, at the show venues... Sites steeped in history, between the sea and the scrubland, such as the Radule waterfall, the Col de Vergio, this border between Haute Corse and South Corsica, or the Senetosa lighthouse, one of the last inhabited in France... The four-day event in an intimate format will complete its ninth edition at the end of August. "A turnkey festival that adapts to the environment", explains the organizer. And not the other way around, that says it all. The quota of participants allows confidentiality to be preserved. On the other hand, the programming is as long as possible: circus, music, dance, experimental cinema, polyphonic songs like Corsica knows how to offer.

The next date:

From August 23rd to 26th, Arti Muntagnera returns to the high mountains with a multidisciplinary program in enchanting locations. In particular, on Sunday the 25th, after a meeting at the spectacular Col de Vergio, the highest pass in Corsica, there will be another 30-minute hike to reach a secret spot. To find out what happens next, you'll have to be there. Artimuntagnera.com