Festival Alors... Raconte !

The magic of storytelling in Tarn-et-Garonne

Every year between January and February, Tarn-et-Garonne enters a unique season. It is not a climatic season—even if winter winds blow across the plains of Quercy—but a season of speech, narrative, and imagination. Alors... Raconte ! takes over the department for several weeks, carrying the voices of storytellers into villages, libraries, schools, and community halls throughout the region.

Created in 1996 by the Association of Friends of the Departmental Library of Tarn-et-Garonne, this is one of the oldest storytelling festivals in France. It remains faithful to its original ambition: to democratize access to the art of storytelling and to make the spoken word a cultural experience accessible to everyone, everywhere in the department, and completely free of charge.

A traveling festival across the department

The originality and strength of Alors... Raconte ! lie in its resolutely itinerant nature. Unlike most festivals that focus on a single city, the festival travels each year to about fifteen municipalities in Tarn-et-Garonne. Montauban, of course, the departmental capital, but also Moissac, Nègrepelisse, Bioule, Corbarieu, Puylaroque, Lauzerte, Montpezat-de-Quercy, Piquecos, Beaumont-de-Lomagne, Bressols, Montech, Montbeton, Labastide-Saint-Pierre, Pommevic, and others depending on the edition—all these towns and villages open their doors to the storytellers for one or more evenings.

This expansive geography is a political statement: culture and storytelling are not reserved for those accustomed to large urban theaters. They belong to everyone, to those living in the countryside and small towns as much as those in urban centers. Every night of the festival, a venue—sometimes in a village of only a few hundred inhabitants—transforms into a magical space where a community gathers to listen, laugh, shiver, and dream together.

Storytellers from all horizons

Since its inception, Alors... Raconte ! has invited storytellers from all walks of life, bringing with them their oral traditions, imaginations, and languages. The invited storytellers are professional artists, some of whom return from one edition to the next—Olivier Ponsot, Rachid Bouali, Olivier de Robert, and Kamel Zouaoui are among the festival regulars. No sets, no artifice: just a storyteller, their words, and a shared imagination.

Free and open to all, no booking required

One of the founding principles of Alors... Raconte ! is that it is completely free. All storytelling evenings, school activities, and sessions for young audiences are free and do not require booking. This principle, maintained since the festival's origins, is a strong choice that reflects the philosophy of the organizing association: the art of storytelling is a common good, and no one should be excluded from it for financial reasons.

This free access makes the festival particularly family-friendly. Children are welcomed as guests of honor, with sessions adapted to their ages and imaginative worlds.

A 30th anniversary edition in 2026

The 2026 edition, taking place from January 23rd to February 15th, marks a pivotal moment in the festival's history: its 30th edition. Thirty years of storytelling in Tarn-et-Garonne, thirty years of voices given and received, thirty years of bonds woven between storytellers from all over the world and the residents of the department. For this anniversary, the association is bringing together eight storytellers—Jérôme Aubineau, Olivier Ponsot, Rachid Bouali, Nicolas Devort, Hélène Palardy, Kamel Zouaoui, Sabrina Chézeau, and Olivier de Robert—before a closing night in Montbeton featuring seven other artists for a grand finale.