Social field

As part of its general interest mission, the Festival d’Avignon strives to include the inhabitants of poorer neighbourhoods through additional means and with a benevolent and personalised approach.

It’s at once a quantitative and qualitative evaluation: to establish a dialogue and cooperation with different structures, to take part in the training of actors present in those neighbourhoods, to propose specific activities and support.

Various collaborations and modes of partnership are used to reach the same goals:

- to diversify the audience of the Festival and bring more people to the FabricA,
- to make it easier to appropriate the skills learnt at school and in those structures,
- to encourage youth employment.

Our actions are focused on three axes:

- to be or to become a spectator (special box office service, support for the discovery of shows),
- to be or to become an actor (artistic practice, walk-on parts, taking part in a creation),

- to look behind the scenes, to create content around the shows, to become a citizen (young culture reporters projects, Workshops of thought),
- to work at the Festival (work experience, seasonal jobs).

The main partners of the Festival d’Avignon are Avenir 84; Un pour Un association; CCAS of Vedène; La Barbière, Monfleury, Croix des oiseaux, Espelido social centres; Cultures du cœur 84; Entraide Pierre Valdo; Logis des jeunes; Secours populaire…

know more about the LOGIS DES JEUNES partnership in 2017

Monfleury social centre: for years now, due to the geographical proximity of those social centres and the FabricA, but also to a shared desire to work together, the staffs and guests of the social centres have been associated to artistic projects or to the organisation of the Festival:

- creation of programmes for adults and children, co-hosted by staff and by the team of the Festival (with subsidised tickets at reduced rate),

- walk-on parts in shows (Lemi Ponifasio’s I AM in the Cour d’honneur in 2014),

- speaking parts in shows (Nadjette Bougahlem’s A Lad’s Word at the Maison Jean Vilar in 2018),

- contribution to drinks party for the Encounters at the FabricA (since 2013),

- seasonal jobs during the Festival for 3 guests of the social centre.

Avenir 84 (regional digital space): located in the heart of the La Trillade neighbourhood, this association aims to teach the inhabitants how to navigate the digital world. For over 10 years, Avenir 84 has helmed the operation “Festival for all” for about thirty associations, for which the Festival d’Avignon provides reduced rates and easier bookings.

For the past 4 years, Avenir 84 has helmed a photo or video essay project throughout the year and during the Festival, focusing on a theme or a show of the Festival (The Other in 2015, The Love of Possibilities in 2016, Micro-Folie in 2017, and the series Ladies, Gentlemen, and the rest of the world in 2018).

Avenir 84 trains between 6 and 8 people every year who then join the seasonal workers of the Festival as customer service agents, watchmen, or box office agents.

know more about the AVENIR 84 partnership in 2018