Afrik'Art

Afrik'Art: African Arts Celebrated in Évry-Courcouronnes

In the heart of Évry-Courcouronnes, the prefecture of Essonne and a city characterized by its rich cultural diversity, the Afrik'Art festival has for several years offered an exceptional showcase for the arts and cultures of the African continent. Born from the desire to give visibility to the artistic expressions of African diasporas in France, the festival has established itself as a benchmark event in the cultural landscape of the Île-de-France region.

Évry-Courcouronnes, a new town built from the 1960s onwards, is today a deeply mixed territory, where communities from all over sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb, and the Antilles have forged strong social and cultural bonds. Afrik'Art mirrors this human richness: it celebrates common origins, shared heritage, and contemporary creations born from these intersections.

A Multidisciplinary Program

Afrik'Art's program is structured around several disciplines that together form a vibrant panorama of contemporary African and Afro-descendant creations.

Music naturally holds a central place, with concerts blending afrobeats, Manding music, Senegalese mbalax, afrojazz, traditional music from Central and East Africa, and contemporary creations that fuse these heritages with electronic or hip-hop influences. Renowned artists mingle with emerging talents, in a dynamic of intergenerational transmission.

African dance — sabar, afrobeats dance, traditional dances from different regions of the continent — features performances and introductory workshops open to the public. These moments of collective practice are among the most intense and participatory of the festival, creating spaces of joy and sharing that transcend origins and ages.

Visual Arts and Gastronomy

The festival also engages with the visual arts, with exhibitions of painting, sculpture, and photography showcasing the work of African or African-descended visual artists, often from the Essonne region or Île-de-France. These exhibitions provide a glimpse into creations often absent from Parisian institutional circuits.

African gastronomy is an essential dimension of the festival. Stalls offer culinary specialties from different countries and regions of the continent — Senegalese thiéboudienne, Ivorian attiéké, Malian mafé, fried plantains — allowing festival-goers to travel through their senses as much as through art.

A Solidarity and Educational Dimension

Afrik'Art is part of a humanist and solidarity-driven approach. Several editions have been organized with a charitable objective, supporting development actions in Africa — building schools, funding scholarships, supporting community health projects. This solidarity dimension gives the festival an added depth, connecting artistic creations with concrete issues of development and cooperation.

Conferences and debates on the history and contemporary issues of the African continent, educational workshops on African arts and cultures for schoolchildren and the general public, and African film screenings complete the program, making Afrik'Art a space for reflection as much as for celebration.

A Festival for All Generations

One of Afrik'Art's strengths is its ability to bring together diverse audiences, from the oldest to the youngest, from families to singles, from Africa enthusiasts to curious newcomers. The festival functions as a space for meeting and discovery, where everyone can find an entry point into the richness of African cultures — through music, dance, gastronomy, or visual arts.

With over 500 participants per edition in its best years, Afrik'Art demonstrates the appetite of the Essonne public for cultural programming that reflects the diversity of its territory and its inhabitants.