Festival sur Lignon

A festival rooted in the Mézenc plateau since 1999

The Festival sur Lignon was born in August 1999 in Fay-sur-Lignon, a village of character perched at over 1,000 meters above sea level on the Mézenc plateau, in Haute-Loire. Founded by Annie and Daniel Fanger within the Association des Rencontres Culturelles des Hauts Plateaux de Fay-sur-Lignon, the festival's ambition from the outset was to foster encounters between a territory, its inhabitants, its heritage, and artistic expression. For twenty editions, until 2018, it made the Ferme de Mathias — an old stone building whose barn with a beautiful wooden frame can accommodate up to 120 seated people — the beating heart of the cultural life of the Haut-Lignon summers.

Renewal: the P'tit Festival sur Lignon

After a three-year absence, the festival was relaunched in 2022 by a new team of volunteers under the name P'tit Festival sur Lignon. True to its original spirit, this renewed version takes over the Place du Foirail in the center of the village as well as the Ferme de Mathias to offer a rich and eclectic program over four days. The festival quickly regained its audience and established itself as an unmissable summer event on the Mézenc plateau.

A multidisciplinary and family-friendly program

The Festival sur Lignon program blends concerts of French song, folk, and world music, live performances, dances, and costumed karaoke. The festival places great importance on local crafts with a creators' market bringing together ceramists, jewelers, tailors, blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, and glassblowers. Creative workshops open to all ages, discovery walks of the natural and built heritage, and a giant brunch complete the program, in a participatory and intergenerational spirit.

The Ferme de Mathias, the festival's setting

The Ferme de Mathias is the emblematic venue of the festival. This old stone farmhouse, a municipal property, houses a large 162 m² room set up in a former barn with a superb boat-style wooden frame, featuring a 22 m² stage and a mobile bar. It is here that the concerts, dances, and gatherings that make up the soul of the Festival sur Lignon resonate. The site, surrounded by meadows and fir forests, offers an exceptional natural setting at over 1,000 meters above sea level, with a view of the Mézenc volcanic peaks.

A mountain village with remarkable heritage

Fay-sur-Lignon, formerly Fay-le-Froid, is a village in the Haut-Lignon located on the Mézenc plateau, on the border of Haute-Loire and Ardèche. Crossed by the Lignon du Velay, the village is renowned for its mountain landscapes, its high-altitude meadows where Fin Gras du Mézenc (AOP) grazes, and its built heritage in volcanic stone. The festival contributes to the cultural and tourist animation of this rural high-altitude territory, creating a bridge between permanent residents, second-home owners, and visitors.