Feÿ Arts

A castle as a laboratory for utopias

Founded in 2018 by art and territory enthusiasts, Feÿ Arts is more than a festival: it is an experience of encounter and artistic experimentation rooted in one of the most beautiful heritage sites in the Yonne. The Château du Feÿ, a 17th-century historic monument built for a counselor to Louis XIII and once frequented by Ninon de Lenclos and Saint-Vincent de Paul, becomes the stage for a demanding and audacious multidisciplinary program each edition. Overlooking the Yonne valley near Joigny, this 42-hectare estate offers an exceptional setting for rethinking and experiencing art differently.

The festival is based on a founding conviction: art is created *in* a place, *with* its inhabitants and its spaces. Several weeks before opening to the public, French and international artists are invited for creative residencies at the château, immersing themselves in the architecture, gardens, basements, and galleries to conceive works and performances specifically designed for Feÿ. The result is always unprecedented: a program impossible to replicate elsewhere.

Eight disciplines for a single universe

Feÿ Arts embraces eight artistic fields that are inseparable under the château's vaults:

• Performance and dance: choreographers and performers take over the château's rooms, corridors, and exteriors with immersive and participatory proposals.
• Live music: from experimental electronic to avant-garde pop, including jazz and world music, Feÿ's music scene is deliberately eclectic and cutting-edge.
• Contemporary art and visual arts: exhibitions, installations, and site-specific interventions transform the château into a living and evolving gallery.
• Architecture: architectural projects, often in the form of temporary structures or spatial interventions, question the relationship with the built environment and the landscape.
• Cinema: open-air screenings or screenings in the château's secret spaces, meetings with filmmakers, programming of auteur or experimental films.
• Publishing and literature: independent publishing houses, public readings, writing workshops, and art book presentations make the festival a space for living thought.
• Gastronomy: committed chefs offer unusual culinary experiences — performative meals, themed dinners, revisited Burgundian regional cuisine — making the table a true artistic medium.
• Conferences and talks: philosophers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and thinkers of tomorrow's world lead discussions on societal, ecological, and artistic issues.

Ecology at the heart of the project

Feÿ Arts is also an ecologically committed festival. The zero-waste policy, the elimination of single-use plastic, the promotion of local producers, and the traceability of products consumed on-site are founding principles, not marketing arguments. The festival operates on the basis of volunteerism, mutual aid, and community: volunteers from all over France converge on Villecien to bring the event to life, creating a unique atmosphere of collective and conscious celebration.

The editions of Feÿ Arts

The first edition was held in October 2018 under the name “Feÿ — Rencontres d'arts,” laying the foundation for an original immersive and residential format. In 2019, during the European Heritage Days, the festival brought together artists from Northern Ireland, Germany, Egypt, the United States, England, Switzerland, Belgium, and France. After an interruption due to the pandemic, the third edition took place in September 2022 with a remarkable electronic and artistic program — Superpitcher, Alexis Le Tan, Joakim, La Baronne — and a deliberately intimate audience size. In May 2024, the fourth edition, titled “Des Terres,” featured artists such as Fishbach, Gaspard Claus, Tracy de Sà, Loa Mercury, and a constellation of performance artists, visual artists, and musicians who inhabited the château for three days.

A human-scale festival, a lasting impact

Feÿ Arts is driven by the Feÿ Arts association (law of 1901, RNA: W893003332), entirely supported by a community of volunteers, patrons, and loyal festival-goers. The limited capacity — a few hundred participants per edition — guarantees the quality of encounters, proximity to the artists, and the intensity of the experience. Here, there is no anonymous crowd: each festival-goer is an active participant in the event, invited to explore, participate, and reflect. Feÿ Arts is one of the few French festivals to dare this gamble on slowness and depth in an accelerating world.

Practical information

• The festival takes place at the Château du Feÿ, in Villecien (89300), in the Yonne region.
• Access from Paris by train to Joigny (Paris-Bercy station, approx. 1h15), then by shuttle or taxi to the château.
• On-site accommodation possible (camping) and in Joigny (hotels, guesthouses).
• Online ticketing on Weezevent.
• 1-day or weekend passes available, with reduced rates for students and residents of the Jovinien area.