Festival des Rias

Festival des Rias: Street theatre takes over the Pays de Quimperlé

The Festival des Rias — or Fest Ar Sterioù in Breton — has become in just a few editions one of the most unique street theatre festivals in Brittany. Every late August, for four days, it transforms the streets, squares, gardens, and landscapes of eight towns in the Pays de Quimperlé into open-air stages for contemporary creation shows.

A 100% free and popular festival

One of the strengths of the Festival des Rias is its completely free access. All shows are free to attend, with no ticketing or booking required. This total freeness is a founding principle of the festival, which aims to make street arts accessible to as many people as possible and to make contemporary creation a popular, shared celebration.

Thirty companies, sixty performances

Each edition hosts around thirty companies from all over France and beyond, for a total of approximately sixty performances. The program mixes street theatre, dance, circus, music, and visual installations in various forms: itinerant shows, site-specific performances, large open-air productions, and intimate creations in unusual locations. Artists take over public spaces — village squares, riverbanks, forest paths, farmyards — to create unique and ephemeral artistic experiences.

Eight towns, one territory

The Festival des Rias unfolds across eight towns in the Pays de Quimperlé: Bannalec, Le Trévoux, Locunolé, Mellac, Moëlan-sur-Mer, Quimperlé, Rédéné, and Riec-sur-Bélon. This inter-municipal dimension, established in 2012, is what makes the festival unique: each town hosts shows in its public spaces, creating an artistic journey across the territory.

Le Fourneau and Quimperlé Communauté

The festival is co-organized by Quimperlé Communauté and Le Fourneau, the National Centre for Street Arts and Public Spaces based in Brest. This collaboration between an inter-municipal body and a national centre ensures both a strong territorial base and high artistic standards. Since its first edition in 2009, the festival has grown from 1,500 spectators to over 60,000 spectators, confirming its regional and national reach.