A Festival in Villeréal

A Festival in Villeréal: seeing theater differently

Since 2009, the Vous êtes Ici collective has organized A Festival in Villeréal every summer, transforming this Lot-et-Garonne bastide into a vast open-air theater. Founded by Samuel Vittoz, the festival has established itself as a unique space for theatrical creation in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, driven by a strong conviction: seeing theater differently.

A Singular Concept Rooted in the Territory

The festival's originality lies in its intimate relationship with the village and its inhabitants. Professional artistic teams are invited to create on-site, taking over everyday spaces transformed into performance venues: private gardens, barns, houses, the Intermarché parking lot, the rugby stadium, as well as the streets and the medieval market hall of Villeréal. Residents actively participate by voluntarily housing artists, lending props and sets, and opening their private spaces to the public.

This model is based on two founding principles that guide each edition:

• Being a creation festival: the shows presented are original creations, the result of research conducted in the area for several weeks.
• Questioning production models: the festival favors the non-commercial and rejects classic festival consumption norms, placing the encounter between artists and the public at the heart of the experience.

A Demanding and Committed Program

Each edition offers about ten shows mixing theatrical creations, stage writing, collective writing, concerts, film screenings, conferences, and readings. In over ten years of existence, the festival has seen the birth of approximately 60 original artistic forms, making Villeréal a true laboratory for contemporary creation.

The festival particularly highlights contemporary writing and singular aesthetics. The 2025 edition, under the artistic direction of Laurette Tessier and Nicolas Candoni (who succeeded Samuel Vittoz in January 2025), focused on women artists — writers, directors, company leaders, actresses, and visual artists — with creations offering intense, moving, and sensitive experiences.

Theater That Emerges in Everyday Life

The festival's strength lies in bringing theater to unexpected places. Spectators are invited to go to the ticket office under the arcades of the Villeréal Market Hall twenty minutes before each performance to discover the secret location where the show will take place. This approach creates a unique relationship between the work, the space, and the audience, where each performance becomes an immersive and intimate experience.

Evolution Over the Years

After the Covid-19 pandemic period, the festival adapted to the new realities of the territory. Villeréal having obtained the "Most Beautiful Village in France" label, the real estate context evolved, and available houses to accommodate artists and shows became scarcer. The Vous êtes Ici collective then expanded its activities: year-round programming, extension to other villages in the Bastides en Haut-Agenais Périgord community of communes, mediation actions in schools, and reflection on associative governance.