Edinburgh and Avignon
A tale of two cities, two world class theatre festivals and their shared commitment to endure.
Marion Geoffray reports back from Avignon, where she led Project Passerelle – a delegation of nine Scottish artists and programmers who spent five days and four nights at Avignon’s OFF and IN festivals (see preview here).
Here, Marion reflects on what Edinburgh and Avignon might build together next.
I am writing this on my journey home, Scotland, my now home away from home whilst the cicadas still ring in my ears, the comforting soundtrack from my birthplace. There is a particular kind of distance that comes from spending five days in a city that is, in theory, entirely familiar to you, and finding it isn’t, not quite, any more, seeing it for the first time as “others see us”.
Posters in Avignon. Pic: Marion Geoffray.
I grew up going to the Festival d’Avignon as a child, watching the opening artists parade in the main street, soaking in the joyous and chaotic atmosphere, collecting the flyers that were handed to me like treasures which would later adorn my teenage bedroom walls.
There, I made my first and only steps in the French theatre industry aged 19 before moving to the UK and, fresh out of drama school, discovering Edinburgh’s Fringe a few years later. The Fringe has since become an annual unmissable rendez-vous, not only because I live in the city of festivals but because it became an intrinsic part of my artistic DNA.
Edinburgh’s Fringe and Avignon’s OFF are cousins from the same family. Born the same year, 1947, one after a curated international festival, the other from the grassroots up. They share some essential DNA: flyering culture, street performance, theatre-mad crowds taking over an entire city for three weeks of summer, a landmark bridge each (the infamous Pont d’Avignon – le Saint-Bénézet for them, the North and South Bridges for us); but they only really see each other once a year, at the big family reunion.
You arrive, you pick the conversation back up where you left it, you share the in-jokes. And you remember, all over again, that you belong to quite different worlds.
Drenched in sun and sound.
We landed at Avignon in the middle of a month-long heatwave which even locals struggled with. The cicadas were so loud, so constant, that some OFF performers were reaching for microphones just to be heard over them, an insect chorus drowning out the actors, day and night, for the whole city. It is a very different discomfort to Edinburgh’s unpredictable August drizzle, but it is discomfort all the same, worn as a badge of honour by everyone who loves this mad, overheated, over programmed month.
The Project Passerelle delegation in Avignon. Pic: Marion Geoffray.
For me, it was stranger still. I grew up in the region, built my career in Scotland, and found myself walking Avignon’s narrow streets speaking English to my fellow delegates while my southern accent kept resurfacing, unbidden, the moment I turned to a French artist. Two selves overlapping on the same cobbles.
Same but different…
The festivals have a lot in common. Both cities use their historical landmarks to showcase international productions: La Cour d’Honneur du Palais des Papes in Avignon, and the Castle Esplanade for us (although the latter unfortunately is rarely used for theatre). They curate an international festival featuring world-class artists (Forced Entertainment, Wagner Moura) with an open, artist-led fringe. They offer a stage for innovation, risk (both creative and financial) and collaboration.
But the differences shape everything. Edinburgh runs one central box office; in Avignon, every venue sets its own ticketing and artistic direction which can be a bit confusing for a first-time visitor especially if you don’t speak French.
The financial commitment is also worlds apart. While the Fringe mostly operates on a box office split, the OFF relies on securing a full run (short runs are very rare) with a five-figure upfront hire that the artists then recoup later through a full box revenue. It might be completely unattainable for us Scottish artists, but you have to bear in mind that France has a more varied and secure (although French artists will tell you otherwise) funding landscape, which also translates on stage into higher production values from grassroots to established companies.
Avignon at night. Pic: Marion Geoffray
And where the Fringe now lists over 3,600 shows, Avignon’s OFF sits at around half that, concentrated far more tightly on theatre and dance rather than the Fringe’s everything-under-the-sun sprawl. There’s also an obvious rift in power dynamics both on a national and international scale. While Edinburgh has always been very open to international development, promoting a “Welcome to the World” narrative, it’s only in the last four years that le OFF d’Avignon has started to take an interest in what was happening beyond the francophone countries and open up their walls and programme to more diverse acts.
An opening
Our Project Passerelle inaugural delegation benefitted from this newfound interest led by Harold David (Festival Off director) and Pascal Chauvet (Director of International Development for Le OFF), who both spoke with excitement about the prospect of bringing more international professionals to Avignon, supporting them in that process and widening touring opportunities for French companies. We spent the week seeing shows, meeting artists, networking and talking honestly about what widening artistic horizons actually requires on both sides.
- “It was such a special time for me, I’ll never forget it, and I feel really lucky to have experienced it.” Milly Sweeney, Director/playwright.
- “[It] was very fruitful to experience those pieces, and has helped clarify my vision for one of my projects” Uma Nada-Rajah, playwright.
- Keep an eye out for Haribo Kimchi, A Trial – after An Enemy of the People and Bigger all making the trip up north next month.
- “I found the conversations very valuable and meeting all of our own delegates properly, really useful too”, programmer Sam Gough, Summerhall Arts Chief executive.
What now
Two things have particularly stayed with me. The first is that exporting Scottish talent and savoir-faire internationally isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s become a necessity. Post-Brexit, mobility has quietly shrunk and national funding is critically dwindling: programmes like this one are how we keep the door propped open.
Whether it is Edinburgh’s Fringe or Avignon’s OFF, their future depends on international collaboration. The second is that working inside someone else’s artistic context and culture is the fastest way to see your own clearly: what’s a privilege here, what’s broken there, what neither of us has solved yet.
None of this happens in silos. Cultural, geographical, linguistic boundaries all dissolve reasonably fast once you remember everyone in the room is doing the same job: making art.
With that in mind, it’s worth noting that Edinburgh, Avignon and Holland Festival, all three born in 1947 with the same vision, that ‘art has the unique power to unite cultures and offer a common language in a fragmented world’, have announced a unique three-year collaboration this year, marked by their first joint co-production, A Trial – after An Enemy of the People, ahead of their shared 80th anniversary in 2027.
Project Passerelle might be a much smaller bridge, but it’s built from the same material. I am now hoping to secure funding to continue the programme next year and take a new cohort of Scottish professionals to Avignon, while we hope to welcome a French delegation to the Fringe in 2027.
On 13th August 2026 from 6pm, we will have a panel discussion followed by a Provençal aperitif at the Institut Français d’Ecosse to share our findings and reflect on our trip.
Free ticketed event: more details here.
ENDS
