Festive and cultural events to enjoy the year 2024 in and around Nîmes

Patricia Guerrero, l'une des têtes d'affiche du festival Flamenco. – Claudia Ruiz Caro

Musique, danse, livres, patrimoine, cinéma, festivals… Une sélection des principaux événements pour une année pleine d’émotions, de rencontres et de découvertes.

Le festival Flamenco

It’s the first highlight of the cultural year with a wind of renewal this year, less dance and more music, but always the same festive promise.

The temperature starts to rise on Wednesday January 10 with dancer Olga Pericet. Alternating between tradition and modernity, the festival welcomes singer Israel Fernández (January 11), singer Rocío Márquez accompanied by electro musician Bronquio (January 13), guitar stars Jesús Méndez (January 18) and Gerardo Núñez (January 20) .

Dance will of course also be there with David Coria who presented last year a work in progress of his creation "Los Bailes Robados" (January 16), the bewitching Patricia Guerrero who has just taken the reins of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía (January 19), the tribute to La Argentina by Paula Comitre (January 17), the revelation Lucía álvarez (14 January) or the look of French choreographer Stéphanie Fuster (January 18).

With of course, in parallel, screenings, conferences, off-nights or an after-party at the Macarena bodega with Paula Comitre and her team.

The biography festival

The hundred or so authors invited to the festival will be revealed next week. The festival will take place at Carré d’art from January 26 to 28, co-chaired by the Islamologist Gilles Kepel who has just published an intellectual autobiography "Prophète en son pays" and Béatrix de L’Aulnoit, for her biography of the Grand Condé.

The public will also be able to meet Boris Cyrulnik, Eve Ruggieri, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Vladimir Fédorovski, Pascal Picq, Pierre Assouline, Denis Podalydès, Marie-Christine Barrault or Bruno Solo.

The Roman Days of Nîmes

The Romans arrive in the arenas for a great reconstruction which will evoke the barbarian invasions. Three performances are scheduled for Friday May 3 at 5:30 p.m., then Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 at 3:30 p.m. At the same time, heritage events will take place throughout the city to rediscover the atmosphere of ancient Nemausus.

The arenas will once again host historical shows next summer, on August 6, 7, 9, 12 and 13.

The Nîmes festival

The Nîmes festival will begin this year on May 31 with the Eric Clapton concert, already sold out like several dates elsewhere. In 2024, the tone is very urban with an evening of IAM and MC Solaar (June 15) also already sold out then Grand Corps Malade (June 23), Ninho (July 6), Macklemore (July 11), PLK and Bekar (July 17) , SCH (June 28), Dadju and Tayc (July 18) and Bigflo & Oli (July 20).

As usual, the festival displays the best of the international scene including The Offspring (July 26), Avril Lavigne (July 10), Simple Minds (July 12), Patti Smith (19 July), James Blunt and Suzanne Vega (July 16)… French pop and rock with Dionysos and Shaka Ponk (June 14) or Etienne Daho (July 19). Song lovers will find Calogero (June 22), Patrick Bruel (July 5), Slimane and Claudio Capeo (June 30).

Finally, the eclectic festival always reserves surprises, this should be the case with pianist Sofiane Pamart (July 4).

Festival Alone on stage in Uzès

The festival, artistically directed by Patrick Timsit, will soon announce the complete program for its second edition for the weekend of May 8. But the first names are already seducing… Resolutely multidisciplinary, the festival largely envisages the only one on stage with to begin with the solo "Completely thrown!" by star dancer François Alu, who recently left the Paris Opera for a personal journey where classical and hip-hop intersect (May 7).

Also on the bill, comedian Sandra Colombo (May 8), a Comedy Club evening with Pierre-Emmanuel Barré, Bun Hay Mean, Thaïs Vauquières, Tristan Lucas (May 8) , a masterclass by Thierry Lhermitte (May 9) or the show "Fantastik" from the mentalist of Viktor Vincent (May 10).

And also…

Paloma. There is still room for Dionysus (February 13), Lescop (March 8), Roméo Elvis (March 9), Hervé (March 14), Clara Ysé (March 17), Jain (April 18) or Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine (May 23).

Uzès Dance. The festival has gained new momentum with a demanding and family-friendly program. This year, it will take place from June 5 to 9.

Ferias de Nîmes. First meeting from May 16 to 20, then from September 19 to 22.
Winter Trads. Lovers of traditional pop and Occitan music will take place from January 17 to 21 in Sommières.

The Song of the Year. Nikos Aliagas, TF1 and the stars of variety will be in the arenas and on television on June 8.

Les Ecrans Anglais. The festival will take place in Nîmes from March 8 to 17. Among the guests, writer and screenwriter Ian McEwan.

Itinérances Festival.Cinema buffs then meet in Alès from March 22 to 31. The theme of the retrospective will be “Hold your bets!”, with films by Jacques Demy, Martin Scorsese, Takeshi Kitano and Clint Eastwood. Among the guests, pianist Jean-François Zygel will accompany "Sportif par amour" by Buster Keaton on March 30.

Nîmes shines. The illustration festival is adjusting its dates. Exhibitions and meetings will begin with summer on June 21 and will continue until July 7.

La Contemporaine de Nîmes

The programming lives up to the ambition. With La Contemporaine de Nîmes, a new triennial event whose first edition will take place from April 5 to June 23, the city intends to give a facelift to its cultural policy. And this is also the chosen theme, "A new youth".

Curators Anna Labouze and Kemis Henni have put together a plethora of programming, linked to the territory. Founder of Artagon, an association which works to support contemporary creation through a network of three locations, the duo runs Magasins Généraux in Pantin in the Paris region.

At the heart of the event, twelve exhibitions will be scattered across the city. Each time, they associate an emerging artist with a recognized creator. The works or projects will all mobilize local actors, whether they are schoolchildren, fine arts students, companions of duty or associations.

To discover in particular, an installation for public space by Laure Prouvost who represented France in Venice in 2019 and Caroline Mesquita, an open-air creation by Feda Wardak and Tadashi Kawamata at the Jardins de la Fontaine, an exhibition by Zined Sedira and Alassan Diawara at Carré d’art, a dialogue between the works of Pierre Soulages and Jeanne Vicerial at the Musée du Vieux Nîmes or between Baya and Neïla Czermak Ichti at the Musée des Beaux-arts…

Many cultural actors will be associated for satellite programming, to be discovered with Nîmes s’illustre, the CACN, the School of Fine Arts, the Sémaphore, Pamela artist-run space, Da Storm. Houses across the city will host residences, festive moments and meeting times.

La Contemporaine de Nîmes will not be limited to visual arts, but will also host live performances, notably during the three highlights which will take place for the opening, during a weekend in May and for the closing. This will be an opportunity to revisit childhood memories, with for example a runaway into the streets of the city center to follow the musician Uèle Lamore, a fair at the CACN and in Pissevin by Mohammed Bourouissa who at the same time will be exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo or a boom by Olivier Dubois in the arenas.

Some exhibitions

Achilles at the Musée de la Romanité. The Musée de la Romanité evokes Achilles and the Trojan War with an exhibition allowing you to rediscover one of the mosaics discovered during the Jean-Jaurès excavations. The story of the hero will be told thanks to loans from the Louvre, the medal cabinet of the National Library of France and an immersive audiovisual tour. From April 26 to January 5.

Musée des cultures taurines. The association of Friends of the Musée des Cultures taurines has officially donated its collection to the museum in the fall. The year 2004 will be an opportunity to showcase this collection of several thousand objects and works of art. Graphic arts occupy a significant part of the donation, which also includes costumes, archives and iconographic documents.

Picasso at the PAB museum in Alès. Faithful to the graphic arts, the Pierre-André-Benoit museum celebrates the most famous painter of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso through his collaboration with the engraver Aldo Crommelynk. Between 1963 and 1972, in Mougins, the duo created 750 boards. The exhibition will present 48 of them, thanks to a loan from Corinne Buchet-Crommelynk. From February 9 to May 19.

"To the happiness of the stockings" at Maison Rouge in Saint-Jean-du-Gard.&amp ;nbsp;Former curator of the Musée du Vieux Nîmes, Aleth Jourdan will curate an exhibition devoted to hosiery at the Musée des Vallées Cévenoles in Saint-Jean-du-Gard. The project will allow you to discover the manufacture of silk stockings in Bas-Languedoc, their use, their marketing… From April 26 to August 18.