Fourvière takes its final bow as jazz descends from Mont Blanc this weekend

The weekend of July 25-26 feels like a hinge point in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes summer. Several major events close their doors just as others are barely opening. Les Nuits de Fourvière play their final evening in Lyon, the CosmoJazz Festival comes down from the Aiguille du Midi, and Interfolk wraps up its week in Puy-en-Velay. Meanwhile, the Jean-Sébastien Bach festival is only just starting in Saint-Donat. Our pick goes to that contrast: one festival closing on Saturday, another opening on Sunday, without leaving the region. Twelve events, eight departments, from classical music to metal, by way of cheese and nougat. Here is our selection for this last big weekend of July.

Les Nuits de Fourvière: the final evening on the ancient stone tiers (69)

This Saturday, July 25, Les Nuits de Fourvière plays its very last date of the 2026 season, in the Roman theatres of Lyon, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Since 1946, this festival has staged more than 60 shows of music, theatre, dance, circus and opera each summer on this archaeological site overlooking the city. More than 130,000 spectators attend the full programme every year. Watching one last concert at dusk on the stone tiers, the city lighting up below, still draws the regulars who never miss the final curtain. An event for every taste, mixing big names and rising artists, that closes one of the region's biggest summer stages.

Interfolk: a world tour of dance ends in Puy-en-Velay (43)

Until Sunday, July 26, Interfolk wraps up its big week in Puy-en-Velay, in the Haute-Loire. Founded in 1964 by Pierre Perrin and Raymond Longo, this international folklore festival brings together close to 300 artists from five continents every year. Costumed parades, traditional dances and concerts take over the town and around thirty communes in the department. This final weekend concentrates the closing shows, where foreign delegations present their best pieces before flying home. Sixty years after it began, the festival remains one of the rare French events where so many nationalities meet for dance and popular music, away from the usual concert halls.

CosmoJazz Festival: jazz comes down from the Aiguille du Midi (74)

Saturday, July 25, marks the final date of the CosmoJazz Festival, in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. Founded in 2010 by pianist André Manoukian, his partner Stéphanie Manoukian and programmer Carine Zuber, this festival offers free concerts given at over 2,000 metres of altitude, at the top of the Aiguille du Midi, in Planpraz and down in the valley. For six days, jazz musicians have performed against high-mountain backdrops that few festivals can claim. This closing show, at the Parc Couttet, brings the festival back down to valley level for one last concert open to everyone, no cable car or hike required. A format that blends sport, tourism and music, unique to the Mont Blanc Alps.

Jean-Sébastien Bach International Festival: a new edition opens in Saint-Donat (26)

On Saturday, July 25, the Jean-Sébastien Bach International Festival opens its new edition at the Collégiale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul in Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse, in the Drôme. Founded in 1962 by Dr Henri Lémonon, Colonel Théophile-Jean Delaye and Canon André Parrot, it is one of France's oldest classical and baroque music festivals. Over more than a week, concerts spotlight Bach's work and the baroque repertoire, in a collegiate church of remarkable heritage on the edge of the Ardèche. The season's first concert, on Saturday, sets the tone for a programme that has run uninterrupted for six decades. A safe bet for anyone who loves early music performed in heritage venues.

Festival Country de Craponne: boots and guitars in the Velay (43)

Every last weekend of July since 1993, the Parc des Étoiles in Craponne-sur-Arzon, in the Haute-Loire, turns into a country music festival. On Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July, American, Canadian and European artists take turns on stage, playing a genre rarely spotlighted at French festivals. Two days of concerts, line dancing and western atmosphere await both regulars and the merely curious. The festival has built a loyal crowd, some travelling far for this unusual format in an Auvergne summer landscape otherwise dominated by classical music and local folklore. A refreshing change of scenery just a few kilometres from Puy-en-Velay.

Best Saint-Nectaire AOP contest: cheese takes centre stage (63)

Head to La Tour-d'Auvergne, where the lakeside area hosts, all weekend on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July, the contest for the best Saint-Nectaire AOP, inside the Volcans d'Auvergne regional nature park. More than 110 farm producers, dairies and cheese-agers compete across three categories: farmhouse Saint-Nectaire, dairy Saint-Nectaire and the ageing challenge. Tastings and encounters with producers fill out the weekend, set between volcanic lakes and high pastures. For anyone wanting to understand the Auvergne cheese industry, it is hard to find a more concentrated event: producers, judges and visitors all cross paths in the same place, without excessive staging for tourists.

Nougat Festival: Montélimar celebrates its specialty (26)

In Montélimar, the Allées Provençales fill with stalls this weekend for the Nougat Festival. Created in 2015, it brings together nougat makers, residents and tourists for production demonstrations, tastings, workshops and open-air theatrical shows, on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July. A village of nougat makers reveals the production secrets of a product known well beyond the Drôme Provençale. Unlike the weekend's big music festivals, this one is lived standing up, wandering between stalls with a piece of nougat in hand. A simple way to end a stroll through downtown Montélimar.

Fête Médiévale de Chalmazel: the village turns into a medieval town (42)

Every two years, the village of Chalmazel-Jeansagnière turns into a medieval town at the foot of the Château des Marcilly-Talaru, in the Monts du Forez — and this is the year, on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July. Organised by the Comité des Fêtes de Chalmazel since 2000, this biennial event closes the village streets to traffic to make room for more than fifteen troupes: fire breathers, jugglers, acrobats, musicians. Because it only comes around every other year, this edition draws a crowd that books the date well in advance. Period costumes, encampments and craft stalls recreate the setting of a 15th-century village, with troupes roaming and interacting with visitors all day.

Textes en l'air: theatre and poetry take their bow in Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye (38)

In Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, a medieval village ranked among the Most Beautiful Villages of France between Valence and Grenoble, Textes en l'air ends its edition this Sunday, July 26. Founded in 2004, this theatre and poetry festival offers five days and five nights of plays, readings, poetic wanderings, open-air concerts and writing workshops in the village's courtyards and lanes. The final evening often gathers the week's most striking texts, in a setting where the Gothic abbey church looms over every improvised stage. A more intimate event than the big music festivals, built for word lovers as much as for theatre-goers.

Volcanic Fest: metal and alternative rock in Andrézieux-Bouthéon (42)

From Friday 24 to Sunday 26 July, Volcanic Fest brings together more than 30 bands on a single stage, on Rue des Garennes in Andrézieux-Bouthéon, in the Loire. Organised by the Teamduc's Production association, this entirely French-language metal and alternative rock festival showcases emerging acts during the day and confirmed headliners in the evening. A craft village and food options round out the music programme over the three days. Human-scale in size, the event has carved out its own identity in a department otherwise dominated by French chanson and world music festivals. Three days are enough to get a feel for it.

Les Fantastiques de Trévoux: three fiery evenings at the foot of the castle (01)

Three evenings, three fireworks shows: that is the line-up for Les Fantastiques de Trévoux, from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 July, on the castle esplanade, in the Ain. Created in 2009 by the Les Rives du Temps association, the event offers, from 5pm, a craft market, children's workshops and wandering minstrels ahead of a fire show performed by the Imaginaire troupe. Flames dance along the ramparts of the hilltop castle overlooking the Saône valley, for a gathering that brings young and old together three evenings running. A simple family outing less than an hour from Lyon, between an evening market and a fiery finale.

Festival des Drailles des Arts: one evening of art in an Ardèche hamlet (07)

On Saturday, July 25, the hamlet of Chambon de Bavas, in Saint-Vincent-de-Durfort in the Ardèche, turns for one evening into an open-air space for artistic expression. Festival des Drailles des Arts invites visitors to wander the hamlet's lanes, courtyards and gardens to discover works by amateur artists and enthusiasts of every age. Free and open to all, this one-off evening plays on the small scale of the setting: a few dozen metres of lanes are enough to host an open-air exhibition, far from the region's better-known contemporary art trails. A gem for anyone who enjoys moving from one piece to the next with no marked route.

Also worth a look this weekend

• Festi Lumière (69): three evenings of open-air cinema at the Château Bellevue in Villié-Morgon, amid Beaujolais vineyards, running through Saturday, July 25
• Le Grand Bal de l'Europe (03): European traditional dance in Gennetines, in the middle of a fortnight-long ball running through August 7
• Festival Clermont en Scène(s) (74): circus and street theatre at the Château de Clermont, this Saturday, July 25

Looking ahead

This weekend of July 25-26 marks the end of several seasons and the start of others: the region never runs short of festivals, even when some close their doors. For the full rundown of what's on right now, see our this weekend's agenda.