Events and festivals in Pays de la Loire on October 3-4, 2026: a comic book festival takes over Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne, alongside a book fair in Le Mans, concerts in Nantes and a fest-noz in Argentré.
Saturday, on Horeau street. Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne hosts a weekend built around comics, through Sunday, October 4, 2026. Events and festivals in Pays de la Loire on October 3-4, 2026: a comic book festival takes over Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne, alongside a book fair in Le Mans, concerts in Nantes and a fest-noz in Argentré.
A comic book weekend in Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne
4 bis Rue Horeau, in Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne. The comic book festival of the Château-Gontier area has set up every first weekend of October since 2011 at the Pôle culturel Les Ursulines, on Saturday, October 3, and Sunday, October 4, 2026 (3-4/10). The association BD au Pays de Château-Gontier has run the event in that same venue from the start.
About thirty authors gather for the occasion, signing their books over the two days. Signings, themed exhibitions, drawn concerts, workshops and meet-and-greets follow one another across the weekend, throughout the Pôle culturel Les Ursulines. Comics take over the whole Mayenne venue, between panels and original artwork.
The rest of the weekend in Pays de la Loire
In Le Mans, in Sarthe, the Faites Lire ! festival closes its reading week with an open-air book fair, between Place de la République and Esplanade des Jacobins, with more than 150 authors across general fiction, children's books, comics and manga, through Sunday, October 4. Heir to La 25e Heure du Livre, this Le Mans fair began in 1978, one of the oldest in France. Next stop, the Vendée coast. In Les Sables-d'Olonne, in Vendée, the Abracadabulles festival brings together about thirty comic book authors, illustrators and manga artists for two days of signings, meet-and-greets, workshops and exhibitions, built each year around a theme that shapes its whole staging. Nantes has more on offer too. Founded in 1997 by an association of about fifteen volunteers, the Nantes photography fortnight displays, across some fifteen venues in Nantes and its wider area, galleries, artists' workshops and municipal spaces, work from both established names and lesser-known talents, through November 1.
Now for the music. In Nantes, the Sonocraft festival mixes genre-crossing concerts, a visual arts exhibition and a local brewers' market at the Ateliers de Bitche, run by the association Le Filtre à Sons and backed by Nantes radio stations Jet FM, SUN and Prun'. The Nantes vineyard area takes over next. In Clisson, Les ClisSonnantes, started in 2020 by the association La Voie des Chœurs to bring classical music closer to the people of the Nantes vineyard, puts on around fifteen concerts through Sunday, October 4, across the Espace Saint-Jacques, the Notre-Dame church, Les Halles and several neighbouring towns. In Maine-et-Loire, the tone shifts. In Sèvremoine, Mauges Pit Fest lines up thirteen metal, punk and hardcore bands over two nights and eleven hours of music at the Salle Thomas-Dupouet, run by the association Mac N'Roll Métallicus since it launched in 2022.
Local produce takes its turn. Also in Nantes, the Escale Croisée festival sets up a craft and design market at the Salle festive Nantes Erdre, with food from around the world and activities for all ages, run by the association Héritages Croisés, which works for fair cooperation between France and Africa. Brittany makes an appearance in Mayenne too. In Argentré, Fest Noz d'Argentré brings together musicians, singers and pipers to get the crowd dancing to traditional Breton tunes, on Saturday evening, at the Salle de l'Escapade, 4 route de Louvigné, organised by the Association Animation Argentré. Southern Vendée bets on craftsmanship. In Sainte-Gemme-la-Plaine, the Rencontres du Patrimoine et de la Création brings together about fifty craftspeople, on both Saturday and Sunday, around live demonstrations of their trades, exchanges with exhibitors and the sale of their work, organised since 2011 by the Agence d'Attractivité de la Vendée du Sud.