Festival Équestre de Lunéville

The Little Lorraine Versailles in Rider's Attire (2011-2018)

ℹ️ 2026 Edition cancelled — festival currently discontinued. The Rencontres Équestres de Lunéville was a unique event in France that, every year in June, transformed the magnificent Château de Lunéville and its Groves into a true open-air equestrian theatre. Created in 2011, the festival ran for eight editions until 2018 before stopping.

An Exceptional Setting

The Château de Lunéville, nicknamed the «Little Lorraine Versailles», was built at the beginning of the 18th century for Duke Léopold I of Lorraine. Its French gardens, Groves, and Champ de Mars offered a magnificent setting for equestrian shows. Riders and their mounts performed in spaces steeped in history, creating a unique symbiosis between heritage and live performance.

Varied Shows

The program of the Rencontres Équestres offered a wide variety of disciplines and forms:

• Haute école and dressage: the most beautiful movements of classical horsemanship in the castle's main courtyard.
• Vaulting and acrobatics: spectacular physical feats performed on horseback.
• Equestrian theatre: artistic creations blending acting, staging, and horsemanship.
• Stunts and cavalcades: action and speed numbers that thrilled the audience.
• Night shows: evening performances enhanced by the lighting in the castle's Groves.

A Centuries-Old Equestrian Tradition

Lunéville has a long equestrian tradition. The town is home to one of France's oldest stud farms and has always been linked to the world of horses. The Rencontres Équestres perpetuated this link for eight editions, offering a program of high-quality shows, accessible to all audiences, riders or not.

A Popular and Family Event

At each of its editions, the Rencontres Équestres attracted thousands of spectators who came to discover or rediscover the Château de Lunéville from a new perspective. The event was open to all and offered activities for families, food stalls, and guided tours of the castle and its gardens. The 8th edition, in June 2018, notably brought together nearly a hundred artists and 130 equids (horses, donkeys, and ponies).

The End of an Adventure

The 2019 edition was cancelled and the festival has not been held since. A petition for the continuation of the Rencontres équestres in Lunéville had been launched at the time, gathering 163 signatories, but it did not lead to the revival of the event. Today, another festival, «Scènes en Selle» organized by the Equiart Concept association, offers equestrian shows in the streets of Lunéville every summer in August — a different format and independent from the Château's Rencontres Équestres.