Events and festivals in Centre-Val de Loire on 19-20 September 2026: Pithiviers closes its second Franco-Moroccan festival, Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre launches Cinévillage and Bourges ends its Nuits Lumière light trail.
Saturday afternoon, at the Parc de Bellecour in Pithiviers. In the Loiret, the town closes the second edition of its Franco-Moroccan festival this Sunday, September 20. The Franco-Moroccan festival of Pithiviers wraps up its weekend, Cinévillage opens in Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre and Bourges switches off its Nuits Lumière. Other gatherings dot the region this 19-20/09, from Chaumont-sur-Loire to Chinon.
A Franco-Moroccan weekend in Pithiviers
The Franco-Moroccan Cultural Festival fills the Parc de Bellecour on Saturday and Sunday. Born in 2025 from the twinning between Pithiviers and the Moroccan town of Ifrane, it celebrates its second edition this year. The event honours the richness of both French and Moroccan cultures, in keeping with that twin-town bond.
The APCFM association runs a packed programme. A Tbourida equestrian show opens both days, followed by a craft village, a fashion show and concerts by Moroccan artists. Exhibitions devoted to Moroccan craftsmanship round out the picture, between calligraphy and decorative objects.
Food holds a place of its own in this meeting of two shores. Tagines, pastries and mint tea are served under the park trees, between two passages of traditional dancers.
Entry stays free during the day. That choice partly explains the turnout: the festival draws thousands of visitors from the Loiret and beyond every year, around a twin-town bond that has grown across two editions.
The rest of the weekend in Centre-Val de Loire
Two closing weekends play out apart. One is scholarly, the other inclusive. Since 1987, the Festival Jazz en Touraine closes ten days of concerts in Montlouis-sur-Loire on Sunday, some fifty dates spread across seventeen towns and open to every style, from African-American roots to contemporary trends. In Vitry-aux-Loges, the L'Art de Rien festival closes two evenings of rap and reggae at the Château de Vaux on Saturday, the first inclusive music event in France, with a stage set aside for emerging artists.
Image and light take up the other side of the weekend. The village of Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre, where Jacques Tati filmed Jour de Fête, launches the Cinévillage festival, which takes over from Tati en Fête and celebrates, beyond the comedy short film, cinema and the image-making craft in every form. In Bourges, six sites switch off on Saturday evening. The UNESCO-listed historic centre, from the Gallo-Roman ramparts to the Hôtel Lallemant, thus closes the Nuits Lumière de Bourges, a free night trail running since May.
In the Allée des Ormeaux, a former riding lane at the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, around twenty nursery growers set up for Les Botaniques de Chaumont-sur-Loire, the only plant festival of its kind in France. In the Perche hills, Mondoubleau en Fête changes register. The village combines guided tours of the historic centre, nature walks and a contest for home-built cargo bikes, alongside carriage rides pulled by Percheron horses.