Project Passerelle
A footbridge between festivals
Scotland is set to renew its Auld Alliance with France this month, by sending a delegation of Scottish artists to Avignon, home to the Festival d’Avignon. Here, delegation leader Marion Geoffray outlines her new venture: Project Passerelle.
This is the Avignon of the nursery rhyme “Sur le pont d’Avignon, on y danse tous en rond”. Theatre makers and connoisseurs with more than nursery French also know that it as something altogether more significant: The home of its own, long-standing theatre festival.
Project Passerelle Logo
You would have to walk 500 miles and just over 500 more (504 more, to be precise) from Edinburgh to reach Avignon, nestled in the heart of Provence in the South of France and on the banks of the Rhône river.
The city has reigned over the European theatre landscape since 1947 and, in 2023, welcomed the famous École Internationale Jacques Lecoq within its walls. Like Edinburgh, it runs both a curated international festival (the IN) and a fringe (the OFF), and its medieval walled city carries UNESCO World Heritage status.
powerful moment
The spectacular Palais des Papes, a palace that briefly served as the seat of Catholicism in the 14th century, now hosts some of the most ambitious international productions each July.
This year the OFF turns 60, with a strong focus on international development led by Harold David (Deputy Director of the OFF). It is also the 80th anniversary of the Institut Français d’Écosse, making 2026 a particularly powerful moment to build new bridges, especially in a post-Brexit landscape where artistic mobility with Europe has quietly, significantly, diminished.
A passerelle is footbridge or a gangway in normal French use – in the theatre it’s what you call a catwalk that extends out into the audience, across the front of the stage in front of the orchestra pit. Project Passerelle looks to provide a gangway between the two festivals.
A street performance during Festival Off d’Avignon 2024. Pic: Pierre Gondard.
Despite both cities hosting two of the world’s most celebrated performing arts festivals each, no formal professional development programme has ever connected their theatre communities. Funded by Creative Scotland and the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, and developed in partnership with the Institut Français d’Écosse and Festival OFF d’Avignon, Project Passerelle is here to change that.
A delegation of four Scottish artists and a trio of Fringe programmers, led by myself with the Institut Français d’Écosse’s Cultural Development Officer Fleur Palazzeschi, is heading to Avignon from 11 to 15 July (during the International week) for a rich and intensive programme of networking, workshops and shows.
Theatre maker, actor and clown, Alice Mary Cooper (The Bush) playwrights Uma Nada-Rajah (Black Hole Sign) and Milly Sweeney (Someone’s Knocking at the Door) and dance artist Solène Weinachter will be joined by programmers from Summerhall, Assembly and Underbelly.
building networks
The idea is that they don’t just encounter world-class work, but will begin building the European networks that could open doors to touring, co-production and residency opportunities.
The ambition doesn’t stop there, Project Passerelle wants to offer more than just a week of professional development and this is only the first concrete step towards building a long and sustainable cultural and artistic exchange.
The next aim is to welcome a French cohort to the Edinburgh Fringe in return in 2027 and hopefully send some Scottish artists to do their Avignon debut. If the Auld Alliance once bound nations together through politics, this new chapter is being written by artists instead.
For more information about the programme, visit www.mariongeoffray.com.
Project Passerelle is on Instagram: @project.passerelle
Incan follow @on Instagram too.
Festival OFF d’Avignon is here: www.festivaloffavignon.com
A workshop and networking event will be taking place at the Institute Français d’Écosse during the Edinburgh Fringe, co-hosted with Festival OFF d’Avignon. Details here.
A street scene during the Festival Off d’Avignon.
ENDS
