La Biennale Toulouse

ℹ️ La Biennale Toulouse has been discontinued. The festival partners officially announced on April 27, 2025, the end of the Toulouse Occitanie International Festival of Live Arts, following the non-renewal of financial support from all local authorities. The last edition was held in autumn 2024. There will be no 4th Biennale in 2026 or beyond in this form.

An international festival of live arts in Toulouse

Launched in 2019, La Biennale was an international festival of live arts that took place every two years for approximately two weeks at the start of the cultural season, in over 25 venues across the Toulouse metropolitan area and Haute-Garonne. A multidisciplinary program — theatre, dance, circus, puppetry, music, performances, visual arts, and installations — brought together French and international artists around contemporary creation.

A unique cooperative model

La Biennale was based on unprecedented cooperation: 38 public and private cultural institutions in the Toulouse metropolitan area partnered to jointly present the program. Partners included ThéâtredelaCité, Théâtre Sorano, Altigone, Odyssud, Le Bijou, and L'Usine. This pooling of resources allowed the festival to invest throughout the territory and to cover the metropolitan area with demanding and accessible proposals.

Three editions held: 2019, 2022, 2024

Three editions were presented before the discontinuation:

• 2019 — founding edition
• 2022 — second edition
• 2024 — third and final edition, from September 27 to October 12, featuring about thirty contemporary and multidisciplinary shows

Over the editions, the festival asserted a strong identity around an international, demanding, and unclassifiable program.

The end of an adventure

In its press release of April 27, 2025, the organization indicated that the festival was disappearing «in full swing,» despite increasing attendance and affirmed recognition. The withdrawal of all public support — Toulouse Métropole, State, Conseil départemental de la Haute-Garonne, and Région Occitanie — made it impossible to continue the event. La Biennale Toulouse will therefore no longer be held.