Ty'Babel Festival

Ty'Babel: Saint-Nazaire's Young Audience Music Festival

The Ty'Babel festival was born in 2025 on the initiative of Athénor, the National Centre for Musical Creation (CNCM) in Saint-Nazaire, directed by Camel Zekri. Dedicated to young children and very young children, this festival offers several days of concerts, shows, workshops, and sound installations every year at the end of March. The program combines contemporary music, improvisation, song, sign language, musical storytelling, and artisanal instrument making, with the aim of sparking surprise, wonder, and curiosity from the youngest age.

A National Network of Festivals for Childhood

Ty'Babel is part of the Babels festivals network, a collective adventure initiated by the Babel Minots festival in Marseille (since 2015) and the Babel Mômes festival in Seine-Saint-Denis and Paris (since 2021). This network shares the same vision: to make living music accessible to all from the youngest age, to break down musical aesthetics, and to foster encounters between children, families, and artists. Ty'Babel anchors this approach in the Grand Ouest region, in Saint-Nazaire.

The Labo Ludi-Musique: A Space for Sound Exploration

At the heart of the festival, the Labo Ludi-Musique, designed by Sarah Clénet and Anne-Laure Lejosne, is a space composed of interactive sound installations where children, accompanied by an adult, can manipulate, listen with their eyes closed, play, and freely experiment with sound material. Open access before and after each show, the Labo also offers specific workshops for children aged 6 to 9 and parent-child workshops for toddlers from 6 months old.

Shows for All Ages

Ty'Babel's program is aimed at all ages, from infants to pre-teens. Each edition offers about ten family performances and a dozen school performances, reaching several hundred students from the Saint-Nazaire area. The shows take place in several locations in Saint-Nazaire and surrounding towns, making the festival a radiating event throughout the territory.

Original Creations and Regional Companies

Ty'Babel highlights musical creation by offering original works created in connection with the region. The first edition presented BaBaribulles, a creation by Athénor developed with seven classes from three schools in the area, in collaboration with the Saint-Nazaire collective À l'envers. The festival hosts local, Breton, and national companies, offering a rich artistic diversity rooted in the Grand Ouest.