Las Rapatonadas — Festival of Storytelling and Orality

A festival born from a passion for Occitan culture

Las Rapatonadas has its roots in the 1970s, when members of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans del Cantal (IEO Cantal), founded in 1974, began collecting the oral traditions, stories, legends, and turns of phrase of the Occitan language in Haute-Auvergne, which were threatened with extinction. From this work of remembrance, La Setmana del conte (The Week of Storytelling) was born in 1981, a first event dedicated to the art of narrative. In 1990, the event took the name Las Rapatonadas and established itself as a true festival.

Le Rapaton, a mischievous little devil

The festival's name is directly inspired by Le Rapaton (pronounced "Rapatou"), an emblematic character from the tales of Haute-Auvergne. This mischievous and cunning little devil populates the Occitan popular imagination: far from being frightening, he embodies cunning, humor, and fantasy. The rapatonadas are literally "devilries," those tricky pranks and colorful stories of which Le Rapaton is the hero. This character gives the festival its unique flavor, a blend of tradition and festive spirit.

Living and contemporary orality

From the outset, the organizers wanted to distinguish themselves from a static and dusty vision of traditional storytelling. Las Rapatonadas celebrates the arts of orality in all their vitality and modernity, meaning their perpetual reinvention in contact with the world. The festival contrasts local Occitan culture with expressions from elsewhere: storytellers from the Maghreb, Scotland, New Zealand, Provence, or Quebec mingle with Occitan voices from Cantal.

A rich and varied program

Each edition offers about ten performances spread over several days in November, in various venues: the Théâtre d'Aurillac, Le Sismographe, L'Ostal del Telh (headquarters of IEO Cantal), downtown cafes for apéro-contes, as well as village halls, media libraries, and community centers in the communes of the department. The program combines storytelling performances for adults, sessions for young audiences, Occitan vigils (Tot en òc !), traditional dances, electro-trad concerts, storytelling workshops, and meetings with artists.

Strong territorial roots

Las Rapatonadas is not limited to Aurillac: the festival reaches throughout the Cantal department, with performances in villages and small towns. This traveling dimension is at the heart of the festival's philosophy, which aims to keep the spoken word alive where it has always been heard, as close as possible to the inhabitants. School sessions also help to raise awareness among younger generations about the art of storytelling and the Occitan language.

Over forty years of transmission

With over forty years of existence, Las Rapatonadas has become a must-attend event in the cultural landscape of Cantal and a national reference in the field of storytelling and orality. The festival contributes to the valorization of Occitan intangible heritage while opening up to world cultures, in a spirit of sharing, conviviality, and intergenerational transmission.