On 22-23 August 2026, the last big events and festivals of the Grand Est summer close: 500 performers from five continents in Haguenau, Cabaret Vert in Charleville-Mezieres, plum feasts in Metz and Dorlisheim.
They come from five continents.
The hop festival of Haguenau closes six days of traditional music and dance on Sunday 23 August. On 22-23 August 2026, the events and festivals of the Grand Est wrap up the summer, from Charleville-Mézières to Metz.
Five continents in downtown Haguenau
The Festival du Houblon has held the centre of Haguenau since 18 August and closes on Sunday 23. Close to 500 performers from five continents play and dance there in front of 50,000 festival-goers, with 1,200 volunteers running the week. It is the largest gathering of traditional world music and dance in the Grand Est.
The festival started in 1960.
It follows the rhythm of the hop harvest, which gave it its name, and runs over six days. It is affiliated to CIOFF and to UNESCO. Performances are split between the town theatre and the streets of the centre, and they can be followed without knowing anything about the repertoires.
Dance is not decoration here: it sits at the centre of the programme, while most of the region's August dates are open-air concerts. That is what makes Haguenau hard to compare with the rest of the weekend.
Saturday and Sunday close the programme, sixty-six years after the first edition.
Cabaret Vert and the open-air stages
In the Ardennes, Cabaret Vert ends on Sunday at Square Bayard in Charleville-Mézières, after four days of rock, rap, electro and French songs followed by more than 125,000 festival-goers, in an eco-conscious event named after an Arthur Rimbaud poem and pitched on the bank of the Meuse. In Erstein, Festival Tempus Music, born in 2024, puts two evenings of French acts in the Parc de la rue de la Lorraine until the 23rd. In the Villé valley, The World Today Festival gathers more than 4,000 electronic music fans at Saint-Martin on Saturday 22, with around a hundred volunteers.
Lunéville brings out the horses.
Equiart Concept runs Scènes en Selle there until 23 August, with dozens of free shows mixing equestrian arts, theatre, dance and acrobatics in the streets, squares and gardens of the town; the equestrian creation festival has no equivalent in France. In Épinal, the Festival de la Glisse Urbaine, run by the Woodmen association, brings skateboard, BMX, roller and freestyle scooter to the Côte Cabiche skatepark, with open-air concerts and free entry.
Two country feasts close the round: the Fête du Cochon en Pays d'Othe draws more than 4,000 visitors to Parc Caroline in Estissac, between artisan black pudding and a pig-squeal contest, and the Fête du Château de Sierck-les-Bains opens on 22/08/2026 with knight fights, equestrian jousting and falconry, plus fireworks over the ruins on Saturday evening.