Events and festivals in Pays de la Loire on September 19-20, 2026: the town of Le Lude turns into a Renaissance theatre, while Laval, Le Mans and the Vendée close out their own seasons.
They come back only every two years, dressed in period costume. In Le Lude, in the Sarthe, the town and its château turn into an open-air stage this weekend. The château becomes a Renaissance theatre, while Laval, Le Mans and the Vendée close their own seasons (19-20/09).
Le Lude turns into a Renaissance theatre
Held every two years by the association Le Lude Renaissance, the Le Lude Renaissance festival turns the town and its château into a vast open-air stage celebrating the Renaissance era.
Acrobats, minstrels, troubadours, craftspeople and actors in period costume fill the streets, courtyards and grounds around the château over two full days. The re-enactment blends live performance, walkabouts and craft demonstrations, in settings that replay the Renaissance.
The event returns only once every two years, never more often. For two days, the whole town plays along, from the back lanes to the château moat.
That rarity shapes its identity. The whole town spends months preparing for these two days of performance, then closes the chapter again on Sunday evening. On the banks of the Loir, the château lends its setting for the second and final day, Sunday, September 20.
The rest of the weekend, from the Sarthe to the Vendée
Three events close their season on the same Sunday. In Laval and Changé, Le Chainon Manquant, founded in 1991 by the Réseau Chainon, wraps up an event that works as both artistic lab and professional market, where emerging companies hope to catch the eye of programmers from across France. In Le Mans, La Nuit des Chimères switches off its free light trail on the old Gallo-Roman wall, Saint-Julien cathedral and the medieval façades of the old town, after one last evening of video projections and photographic portraits tucked into the old town's corners. The Le Mans Pop Festival also takes its final bow, after drawing more than 346,000 spectators and backing 1,500 young artists over more than thirty years.
Three village stages are still playing on Saturday and Sunday.
In Vivoin, the Vivoin Festival brings early and baroque music to the Saint-Hippolyte priory, with concerts, priory tours and meetings with the artists, in a programme that mixes music with visual art. In Mamers, eight amateur and professional companies take turns at the town theatre for the ninth edition of Mamers en scène, whose patron Gérard Levoyer meets the audience on Saturday afternoon, run by a group of volunteers since 2016, ranging from comedy to darker drama. In Givrand, the community hall turns into a costumed party for Les Givrés, born in 2006 from a group of young locals, mixing rock, reggae, brass band, themed decor and French chanson.
Three other events tell the region's heritage story. The Orgues en Anjou Festival opens its organ-concert tour on Sunday in Sèvremoine, where the association Orgue et Musique à Sèvremoine hosts the first concerts of a circuit that also runs through Doué-la-Fontaine, Chemillé-en-Anjou, Les Ponts-de-Cé and Longué-Jumelles. Les Préférences links Nantes to the Val de Loire by bike and boat, with a stop in Ancenis, honouring writer Julien Gracq and his 1961 essay collection of the same name. In Gétigné, Les Petites Chapelles draws more than 600 people to free, intimate half-hour concerts across three chapels in the village, timed with the European Heritage Days.
The European Heritage Days take place across France on the same weekend, opening monuments and châteaux to the public.