Festival Clermont en Scène(s)

A Renaissance Castle as a Stage

The Château de Clermont, built in the 16th century by Gallois Regard, Bishop of Bagnorea and advisor to the Dukes of Savoy, is one of the rare examples of Renaissance architecture in Haute-Savoie. Owned by the Department of Haute-Savoie, this listed historic monument overlooks the Annecy valley and offers a striking panorama of the lake, the Semnoz and Tournette mountains, and the Aravis mountain range.

It is in this exceptional setting that the Department organizes the Festival Clermont en Scène(s) every summer, transforming the esplanade, inner courtyard, and gardens of the castle into open-air stages for live performance. The contrast between the Renaissance architecture and contemporary artistic forms—aerial circus, physical theater, hip-hop dance, Afro-soul music—creates a unique cultural experience, at the crossroads of heritage and creation.

Over Twenty Years of Free Performances

The festival was born in the early 2000s when the Department of Haute-Savoie decided to make the Château de Clermont a cultural hub open to all, in line with its cultural, heritage, and memorial policy. The event took its current form under the name Clermont en Scène(s) starting in 2019, with a focused and ambitious program concentrated on summer Saturdays.

Complete free access is the founding principle of the festival. All performances, all activities, all castle tours are 100% free, allowing a wide and diverse audience—families, children, the elderly, tourists, residents of the Annecy area—to discover live performance without financial barriers. Free shuttle buses from Annecy facilitate access to the site, located about fifteen minutes from the city.

Six Summer Saturdays, Six Eclectic Events

The festival offers six evenings of performances, every Saturday from June 21 to July 26. The program is intentionally eclectic, alternating disciplines and styles to surprise and delight an intergenerational audience:

• Contemporary Circus: acrobatic shows, trapeze, Chinese pole, poetic juggling, aerial circus and new circus companies.
• Street Theater: physical theater, dance-theater, and itinerant theater companies using the castle grounds.
• World Music: Afro-soul concerts, Latin music, Balkan brass bands, acoustic world music.
• Dance: contemporary dance, hip-hop, participatory dance inviting the audience to join in the movement.
• Family Workshops: creative activities for children from 18 months old, fun guided tours of the castle, sensory installations.

The evenings are divided into two parts: the castle is open for free from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM for tours and workshops, then the performances begin at 7:00 PM and continue until 10:30 PM.

Strong Territorial Roots

Clermont-en-Genevois is a commune in the Annecy agglomeration located on the north shore of Lake Annecy, at the crossroads of the Annecy-Geneva and Annecy-Aix-les-Bains routes. The castle, perched on a hill, is visible from afar and is a major landscape landmark. The festival contributes to the summer animation of the territory and the influence of departmental heritage, attracting several thousand spectators each summer to this historic site.