Festivals and events in Occitania on September 19-20, 2026: military bands from up to eight nations parade in Tarbes, a medieval abbey in Tarn-et-Garonne comes alive, and Lisle-sur-Tarn becomes the capital of crime fiction.
Brass bands echo along a boulevard. Tarbes closes its international military music festival this Sunday, September 20. Festivals and events in Occitania on September 19-20, 2026: military bands from up to eight nations parade in Tarbes, a medieval abbey in Tarn-et-Garonne comes alive, and Lisle-sur-Tarn becomes the capital of crime fiction.
Tarbes and Its International Military Music Festival
A tribute to bands representing armies from around the world. The International Military Music Festival of Tarbes gathers formations from several countries on Boulevard du Président Kennedy, in the heart of town.
A biennial event, not an annual one.
Founded in 2002, the festival chose Tarbes for a specific reason: the town is the birthplace of Marshal Foch and it keeps a strong military tradition. Hundreds of uniformed musicians, coming from six to eight nations, parade through the streets and perform on stage over three days, from 18 to 20/09/2026.
Parades in town alternate with concerts on stage, mixing drums, brass and military bands carrying as many traditions as there are countries taking part, from marching rhythms to full symphonic pieces. Several armies share the same stage over a single weekend, each keeping its own uniform and its own repertoire.
Three days, one shared stage, several nations.
Camargue Traditions, Crime Novels and Weekend Curiosities
In the Gard department, the Fête Votive du Grau-du-Roi closes on Sunday with its abrivados, its bandidos at the swing bridge, its encierros on the plagette, its Camargue bull races, its roussataïo and its Languedoc jousts on the canal, a tradition launched in 1946 that marks the end of summer for local residents. Eighty years of local pride. The street dances carry on well into the night. In Cordes-Tolosannes, the Médiévales de Belleperche set up sword fights, ancient fencing, falconry demonstrations and medieval camps inside the cloister and gardens of a Cistercian abbey founded in the 13th century, on the banks of the Garonne side canal. Historical re-enactment troupes hold the grounds all weekend. Two very different faces of the region's past.
The medieval bastide of Lisle-sur-Tarn has turned itself, since 2015, into the capital of crime fiction, with about forty French-speaking and international authors meeting, debating and signing books on Place Paul-Saissac, alongside Gaillac wines in a free, family-friendly festival. Free and open to all. The hilltop village of Lauzerte hosts, meanwhile, the Prix Place aux Nouvelles, on Place des Cornières, where around twenty authors gather for readings, discussions, writing workshops and the award of the festival's own prize. One of the rare French festivals devoted entirely to short stories.
In the Aveyron, starting from Saint-Affrique, the Fest'Trail Causses et Rougier sends runners over four courses, from an 8-kilometre prologue to a 50-kilometre ultra, through the Grands Causses regional nature park, past the Château de Montaigut and the Rocher de Caylus, a former stronghold of the counts of Saint-Affrique. Eight kilometres, or fifty. In Saint-Martin-de-Valgalgues, near Alès in the Gard, the bike shop Le Vélo Jaune runs the Alès Bike Festival at the Pôle Mécanique Alès-Cévennes, with brands such as Colnago, Cannondale, Cervélo, ENVE Composites and Gaerne, for a day of free test rides on road and track. A whole day built around bikes.
In Toulouse, the Woori Festival brings together traditional Korean martial arts, K-pop and street food on the Île du Ramier, with craftspeople, creators and performing companies from Korea and France, run since 2022 by the Franco-Korean Association of Midi-Pyrénées. Korea and southwest France, on the same island. The Festival Arabesques closes in Montpellier with its programme of music, dance, film and exhibitions built around the arts of the Arab world. In Argelès-Gazost, the Pyrenean Dog Festival brings together around 300 dogs from four Pyrenean breeds, the Pyrenean Shepherd, the Catalan Sheepdog, the Great Pyrenees and the Pyrenean Mastiff. The gathering reached its 23rd edition in 2025.
Entry stays free in Lisle-sur-Tarn for the crime fiction festival.