Events and festivals in France on 29-30 August 2026: Les Rendez-vous de l'Erdre close out a week of free jazz in Nantes, the Foire de Châlons-en-Champagne opens an eleven-day run and Mont-Saint-Michel abbey gives its last evening shows of the season.
On the banks of the Erdre, in Nantes. Les Rendez-vous de l'Erdre have been running concerts since Monday 24 August, and the 2026 edition is down to its final two days. Over the weekend of 29-30/08, events and festivals divide up the map of France this weekend: the jazz winds down in Nantes, the big fair gets going in Châlons-en-Champagne, the night shows go dark at Mont-Saint-Michel.
A hundred and twenty free concerts along the Erdre
Created in 1986 by the City of Nantes, Les Rendez-vous de l'Erdre ranks among the biggest jazz festivals in France. Every year, in late August, for one full week, the formula stacks two worlds on top of each other: the vitality of today's jazz on the stages, and an exceptional gathering of boats on the river.
Nobody pays for a ticket, from the first concert to the last.
From Monday 24 to Sunday 30 August, 120 concerts play in the open air, on public space, around the allée Duquesne and along the banks. More than 150,000 spectators make the trip every year.
Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August are the final two days of the 2026 edition. The stages play one last time by the water, the crews of the nautical gathering hold the river, and the week closes on Sunday, forty years after the first edition. This year the finale lands on the last weekend of August, two days before the new school term.
From Béthune to Calvi, nine more events
Three musical bills, three different crowds. At Vieure, in the Allier, the Hadra Trance Festival, the biggest psychedelic trance festival in France, rolls out 72 hours of non-stop music on four stages by the lake until Sunday, in front of close to 10,000 festival-goers. On Béthune's Grand'Place, Béthune Rétro, the biggest rockabilly festival north of Paris, lines up free concerts, classic cars, a vintage market and pin-up elegance contests. In Paris, Jazz à la Villette, heir to the legendary Villette Jazz Festival, has just opened its ten days of jazz, soul, funk and hip-hop between the Philharmonie, the Cité de la Musique and the Grande Halle de la Villette.
Cinema and books hold their own. The Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême ends on Saturday 29 after six days of premieres, competitions and masterclasses devoted to French-language cinema. In Calvi, the Festival du Livre wraps its 26th edition the same day, a fixture in Haute-Corse since 2001.
Two gatherings from another age. At the Théâtre des Roches in Alise-Sainte-Reine, in the Côte-d'Or, the villagers themselves perform the Mystère de Sainte-Reine, a centuries-old play preceded by a procession, retracing the martyrdom of a Gallo-Roman shepherdess put to death in 253. In the harbour of Pont-Aven, the Fête de la Belle Angèle, run by an association founded in 1991, gathers around thirty traditional tall ships on Saturday, with sea shanties on two stages and fireworks, in aid of Brittany's naval heritage.
One begins as the other ends. At the Capitole en Champagne, the Foire de Châlons-en-Champagne, held there since 1947, starts its eleven-day run with more than 800 exhibitors, a farming village and free concerts every evening, an event that draws over 200,000 visitors each year. At Mont-Saint-Michel, Les Nocturnes de l'Abbaye, created in 2018 with the Centre des monuments nationaux, give their last evenings of the season: the immersive sound, light and video walk through the ancient abbey stops on 31 August.
In Châlons, the fair carries on until 7 September.