Festival d'Avignon

Jean Vilar started it in 1947 in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes, which remains the main stage: two thousand people outdoors against a medieval wall, performances starting at ten at night when the heat drops.

Around it the Festival Off has grown to more than a thousand productions in every available room in the town, which makes Avignon the French equivalent of Edinburgh with better weather and worse queues.