Festival d'Avignon – 80e édition

The Avignon Festival represents 80 years of universalism in service of cultural heritage and contemporary creation. 80 years of placing art in perspective with social reality. 80 years of a political and aesthetic project that observes the great metamorphoses of live performance and, through them, the diversity and complexity of the world.

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes is the cradle of the Festival, which takes over more than 30 places in the city and its region. Within works of art but also gymnasiums in cloisters, chapels in gardens, quarries in churches, the Festival welcomes more than 120 spectators during more than 000 appointments (shows, debates, meetings, readings, screenings ).

To be the international meeting place for theatrical creation, the happy marriage between memory, history, heritage and the future, experimentation and; accentuate the territorial presence; make ecology a priority concern and promote accessibility in all its dimensions: these are the main axes of the direction of Tiago Rodrigues at the head of the Festival since September 2022.

In 2013, the FabricA, the first space specially designed for the Festival, was inaugurated. A place of residence for artists throughout the year, it houses a room the same size as the stage in the Cour d'honneur and helps to intensify the work of raising awareness of performing arts that the Festival carries out with all audiences.

NEW TICKETING FEATURE 2026
To ensure smooth access and avoid website overload, online ticket sales will be available in time slots this year. After registering, each spectator will have a designated time to make their purchases.

A two-step approach

STARTING MARCH 24TH, 10 AM
REGISTER FOR A SHOPPING TIME SLOT
Without this step, access to this first phase of online ticket sales is not possible. Go to festival-avignon.com.

FROM 13 TO 18 APRIL
SALE BY PURCHASE SLOT
A unique access link will be sent by email before the start of your selected time slot. Each shopping session lasts 2 hours, allowing for a relaxed shopping experience. The same number of places are available at the start of each session.

PRESALE SATURDAY, APRIL 11
AT THE AVIGNON FESTIVAL FACTORY
From 9:00 AM, numbered tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. This number determines the order in which tickets will be served during the presale. The Festival reserves the right to stop ticket distribution depending on attendance.

Starting at 10:00 AM, a meeting with Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Avignon Festival, will precede the presale, focusing on the main themes of the 80th edition's program. Those with a ticket for the meeting will have priority access to the presale.

Advance ticket sales will begin after the event. The Avignon Festival team will be present to offer advice and answer questions.

In summary: collect a numbered ticket from 9am, attend the match at 10am, then access the presale according to the order of the numbers at the end of the match.

STARTING APRIL 18
Following this initial phase, the online ticket office for the Avignon Festival will open without time slots and subject to availability, starting at 10am on fnacspectacles.com, then at 13pm on festival-avignon.com
New places every Wednesday at 10am.

FROM JUNE 20
by phone and at the ticket office, and from June 27th at the festival shop on Place de l'Horloge.
From July 1st, all points of sale are open every day. During the festival, a ticket office also opens at each venue 1 hour before the show.

THE 80TH EDITION
In 2026, following English, Spanish, and Arabic, the Avignon Festival will welcome an Asian language that is now spoken throughout the world: Korean. South Korean culture fascinates the planet: K-pop, cinema, television series, literature… But beyond this soft power, we want to reveal the richness of Korean performing arts.

For this 80th edition, Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Avignon Festival, invites us to look to the future: "This edition will be inscribed in the future and projected towards the next eighty years of the Festival. It is to the future that the questions raised by the invited artists will be addressed, in connection with the utopia of Jean Vilar."

For the second year in a row, the dates are aligned with those of the Avignon Off Festival.

The Festival boasts a predominantly female lineup. In 2026, for the first time, a majority of the shows presented at the Festival will be directed by women: 27 women, 16 men, and 6 collectives.

The poster for the 80th Avignon Festival is a question mark banging its fist on a table. A way of celebrating an edition marked by questions, fertile doubt, and curiosity.

Some key figures
This edition promises to be a rich experience filled with emotion, reflection, and creativity, featuring 22 days of festival activities, 47 shows – 40% of which are world premieres – 2 exhibitions, 80 debates and discussions, and over 300 events in July combining performances, discussions, readings, debates, and screenings. Building on the success of the previous edition, which attracted 9,000 first-time festival-goers, the festival hopes to welcome new audiences.

To see the presentation of the 80th edition: https://festival-avignon.com/fr/audiovisuel/presentation-de-la-programmation-de-la-80e-edition-356037

The program is available online: https://festival-avignon.com/fr/edition-2026/programmation/par-categorie?cat=1001

More information at https://festival-avignon.com/

The schedule of shows is available below: