Les Concerts Allumés

Les Concerts Allumés: Music and the City in a Different Way

Born in 2005 under the impetus of the Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers (TAP), Scène nationale de Grand Poitiers, the Les Concerts Allumés festival was built around an ambition: to reinvent the way music inhabits the city. For four days, Poitiers transforms into a vast open-air stage, where concerts take over unusual venues — Romanesque churches, inner courtyards, secret gardens, illuminated squares — to offer the public an extraordinary musical experience.

A Unique Concept: Music and Light

The unique nature of Les Concerts Allumés lies in the fusion of musical performances and urban lighting. The facades of Poitiers' historic monuments — Saint-Pierre Cathedral, Notre-Dame-la-Grande Church, Saint-Jean Baptistery — light up to accompany the sound creations. This alliance between architectural heritage, artistic lighting, and live music creates a dreamlike and immersive atmosphere, inviting spectators to rediscover their city in a new light.

An Eclectic and Bold Program

The festival champions a resolutely pluralistic and demanding program, mixing contemporary music, jazz, world music, contemporary classical music, electroacoustic creations, and transdisciplinary performances. Les Concerts Allumés favors atypical formats: walking concerts, improvisations for duos in heritage sites, site-specific creations designed specifically for Poitiers' architecture, intimate acoustic sets, and sound and visual shows. This artistic rigor has established the festival as a laboratory for musical creation in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

Rooted in Poitiers' Heritage

Les Concerts Allumés draws its identity from the extraordinary Romanesque heritage of Poitiers. By occupying historic buildings rarely open to the public and enhancing them with light, the festival contributes to the valorization of heritage while making music accessible to all. The partnership with the City of Poitiers, Grand Poitiers Communauté urbaine, and the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine demonstrates the territorial anchoring and institutional recognition of this unique event.