Events and festivals in Burgundy-Franche-Comté on October 3-4, 2026: the biggest street arts festival in Franche-Comté fills Besançon, alongside the Absinthiades in Pontarlier, an ultra-trail race in the Jura and a flea market in Belfort.
Saturday afternoon, in Besançon. The Festival du Bitume et des Plumes sets up its programme there through Sunday, October 4, 2026 (10/3-4). Events and festivals in Burgundy-Franche-Comté on October 3-4, 2026: the biggest street arts festival in Franche-Comté fills Besançon, alongside the Absinthiades in Pontarlier, an ultra-trail race in the Jura and a flea market in Belfort.
The Festival du Bitume et des Plumes in Besançon
The Festival du Bitume et des Plumes fills Besançon. Since 2014, the Association du Goudron et des Plumes has organised the event, which returns every year in early October, over three days, from Friday, October 2 through Sunday, October 4, 2026, across the main squares and courtyards of Besançon, in the Doubs. Place Granvelle serves as its main stage.
Circus, dance, theatre and clowning follow one another. Concerts and exhibitions round out three days of shows, brought by multidisciplinary companies performing outdoors, in the courtyards and squares of the city, from morning to night, between companies scheduled during the day and more ambitious productions staged in the evening.
Place Granvelle holds most of the weekend's activity, on both Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4.
The rest of the weekend
Pontarlier has hosted the Absinthiades since 2001. A contest for the best absinthe, a collectors' fair and distillery visits gather fans of the green fairy there, every first weekend of October. In Métabief, the UTMJ lines up six race formats. Between a 10K and the 175K flagship race, which climbs 7,000 metres of elevation gain, the route crosses France, Switzerland, the Ain, the Jura and the Doubs, since the race was created in 2020. The Fête de la Pomme returns to Laignes. In Côte-d'Or, every first Sunday of October since 2007, the cider press turns, traditional blood sausage is made, and the market brings together producers and craft makers, with activities for the whole family.
The Épicuriales mâconnaises were born in Mâcon. Designed by the Mâcon Sud Bourgogne tourist office, they have producers, winemakers and chefs of the Mâconnais offer tastings all along a route through the town's historic buildings, ahead of a dinner bringing together several regional chefs. Close to 150 exhibitors set up the Marché aux Puces. On Place d'Armes, in Belfort's old town, they offer furniture, trinkets, clothes, books and curiosities, in the market's treasure-hunt atmosphere.
The Foire Expo fills Toucy, in the Yonne. Under a marquee on Place des Frères Genet, shopkeepers, craftspeople and manufacturers gather there for four days, while the Halle aux Grains hosts the Salon des Métiers d'Art and the Café Fournier hall hosts the Village Éco-Habitat, for a Puisaye tradition dating back to 1977. The Jura hosts the Zig Zag biennial. Organised by the association des Ateliers des Artistes Associés, it opens 45 artists' workshops spread from north to south of the department, each hosting a guest artist for the occasion. The Charolais-Brionnais area hosts the Celtique en Voûtes festival. The German-Irish band Black Velvet Band gives three traditional Irish music concerts in Romanesque churches, in Charlieu and Saint-Nizier-sous-Charlieu.