NEXT Arts Festival

NEXT Arts Festival: Performing Arts Without Borders

The NEXT Arts Festival is an annual artistic event dedicated to performing arts (theater, dance, performance) rooted in the territory of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis and Valenciennes. Created in 2008 by five cultural organizations from three countries, the festival embodies the cross-border dimension of this unique region in Europe.

Five Founding Organizations

NEXT was born from the collaboration between five major cultural players: La Rose des vents (Villeneuve d'Ascq), the Espace Pasolini (Valenciennes), the Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), the Cultuurcentrum (Kortrijk), and the Maison de la Culture de Tournai. This Franco-Belgian alliance allows the festival to produce and present about fifty shows in about fifteen venues in the cross-border region.

Three Weeks of Performing Arts

For three weeks in November, NEXT offers a dense and demanding program of contemporary theater, dance, and performance. Each year, the festival invites around 40 international artists to create and present their works in the cross-border region, offering a panorama of contemporary trends in performing arts in Europe and beyond.

Deconstructing Borders

Within the framework of the Eurometropolis, designed to enhance cross-border collaboration, NEXT serves as a cultural instrument to strengthen the common identity of this territory. The festival invites audiences to deconstruct inherited borders, linguistic barriers, and invisible walls, developing a program that abolishes divisions between artistic and aesthetic disciplines.

A Network of Partner Venues

The festival takes place in about fifteen venues spread across France and Belgium: Lille, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Maubeuge, Valenciennes, Kortrijk, Tournai, Ieper, Waregem, and other towns in the area. This dispersed geography is at the heart of the festival's identity.