Rock This Town

Rock This Town: Independent Rock Takes Over Valence

Born in 2017 on the initiative of Mistral Palace, a Valence cultural institution dedicated to contemporary music, the Rock This Town festival has established itself as the unmissable event for independent rock in the Drôme region. Every autumn, for about ten days in November, the festival takes over several cultural venues in Valence and its urban area to offer a sophisticated and passionate program.

A Multi-Venue and Multi-Format Festival

What makes Rock This Town unique is its distributed format. The festival is not confined to a single venue but takes over several cultural spaces in the Valence urban area: Mistral Palace, of course, but also the cinema Le Navire, the Théâtre de la Ville de Valence, La Cordo (SMAC de la Drôme), Le Vex, and other partner venues. This roaming approach creates varied atmospheres and reaches different audiences.

Beyond the concerts, the festival also offers film screenings related to rock culture, meetings, and moments of conviviality that make each edition a true immersion into the world of independent rock.

A Demanding Program

Rock This Town captures the essence of contemporary independent rock in all its diversity: post-punk, noise, garage, indie pop, alternative folk, electro-rock... The program skillfully blends promising discoveries, bands from the local scene, and established artists from the French and international alternative scene. Each edition brings together about thirty artists over ten days.

The Mistral Palace Spirit

Mistral Palace, located at 12 rue Pasteur in Valence, is the soul of the festival. This independent cultural institution, dedicated to contemporary music, has been curating an ambitious program for several years, keeping the rock scene alive in Valence. Rock This Town is the natural extension of this energy, a moment when Mistral Palace unites all cultural players in the region around a common passion: rock.

A Festival Rooted in its Territory

By spreading across several towns and venues in the Valence urban area, Rock This Town contributes to the cultural vitality of the territory. The festival fosters links between local cultural structures and offers valuable visibility to emerging artists from the region. It helps position Valence as a dynamic city on the contemporary music map in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.