Events and festivals fill Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur on September 19-20, 2026: kites soar over Fréjus, techno echoes through Avignon's Papal Palace, and Pernes-les-Fontaines opens forty-two fountains for Heritage Days.
One last big weekend before autumn. Across the Var, Vaucluse, Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, events and festivals run on September 19 and 20, 2026. Kites over the Mediterranean, electronic music inside the Papal Palace, open fountains in the Vaucluse: the region strings together events and festivals.
Kite Pilots and Aerobatics on a Former Naval Air Base
The Festival International de l'Air opens on September 18 at the Base nature François Léotard and runs through Sunday the 20th, between demonstrations and competitions. Fréjus hosts it, on its former naval air base. The event brings together kite pilots from several countries, a gathering launched in 1997 that has filled the skies over the Var for nearly thirty years. For three days, the Base nature hosts the festival's demonstrations and competitions.
Giant kites unfold facing the sea. Some stretch several metres across and stand out from far along the Var coastline, between beach and pine grove. Aerial ballets and acrobatic competitions fill both days, watched by families settled on the sand.
The programme also sets aside flying workshops for children, alongside activities focused on environmental awareness. Naval aviation once occupied this same ground. The youngest visitors try their hand at flying under the guidance of instructors, between two workshops devoted to the sea and its winds.
The Base nature François Léotard replaced the military naval air base, turned into a vast public space open all year round. International pilots use this open stretch facing the sea to multiply their figures, between demonstrations and official competitions.
Music, Heritage and a Bike Ride
Pernes-les-Fontaines, once the capital of the Comtat Venaissin, opens its doors on September 19 and 20. The town counts forty-two public fountains and an old centre listed as a remarkable heritage site since 2019. The opening ties into European Heritage Days. In Tende, another historic route opens too. The International Royal Route Organ Festival opens there on September 19, the first stop on a trading route laid out in the 16th century under Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy. It now links around fifteen churches between Nice and the Italian Piedmont.
Toulon closes its season the same day. The Toulon and its Region Music Festival, founded in 1951, wraps up seven months of concerts across the area's heritage venues, one of the six oldest classical music festivals in France. It alone programmes all year round. In Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Jazz à Saint-Rémy, created in 2008, revives a tradition once celebrated in the 1970s and 1980s. Its last night is the 19th, at the Alpilium. The Rencontres Musicales de Bonnieux conclude their concert series on Sunday, inside the upper church of this hilltop Luberon village.
Avignon buzzes too this weekend. Since 2009, the Festival Résonance has installed electronic music and digital arts across the city's landmarks: the Papal Palace, Pont Saint-Bénézet, Collection Lambert and Musée Calvet. The line-up runs through Sunday the 20th (19-20/09). The CIAM opens its big top and Magic Mirrors tent in Aix-en-Provence for Jours et nuits de cirque(s), with circus shows, cabaret and flying trapeze taster sessions. It opens on the 19th. In the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Les Orées Sonores spreads seven music stages across the Oraison racecourse, all night long. In Oppède, cycling takes over. The Vélo Vin Copains association sets off from the Moulin Saint-Augustin for a roughly thirty-kilometre ride among the vineyards, for the Cigales & Guidons Festival in the Luberon.
Pernes-les-Fontaines' tourist office runs the weekend's guided visits, in the old town.