Unlike most provincial festivals of international renown, the Festival d'Avignon is dominated by theatre rather than classical music, though there is also plenty of that, as well as lectures, exhibitions and dance. It uses the city's great buildings as backdrops to performances, and takes place every year for three weeks from the second week in July. During festival time everything stays open late and everything gets booked up; there can be up to 200,000 visitors, and getting around or doing anything normal becomes virtually impossible.

 

The 2000 festival, which coincided with Avignon's turn as European Cultural Capital, saw theatrical interpretations as diverse as Euripides and Gogol, performed by companies from across Europe. As ever, heavywieght productions under the direction of figures such as Jacques Lasalle were balanced by the kinetic buffoonery of groups like the Footsbarn Travelling Theatre. The programme also included dance performances and lectures. The spotlighted culture of that year's festival was Eastern Europe; the programme From the Baltic to the Balkans was the debut of THEOREM (Theatres from the East and from the West), a European cultural venture designed to bring together the two halves of Europe on the stage, and it included theatre and dance groups from Lithuania to Romania, with strong Hungarian and Russian showings. As well as the mainstream festival, there's a fringe contingent known as the Festival Off , using a hundred different venues and the streets for a programme of innovative, obscure or bizarre performances.

The main festival programme , with details of how to book, is available from the second week in May from the Bureau du Festival d'Avignon, 8bis rue de Mons, 84000 Avignon (tel 04.90.27.66.50, www.festival-avignon.com ), or from the tourist office. Ticket prices are reasonable (between 130F/¬19.83 and 200F/¬30.50) and go on sale from the second week in June. As well as phone sales (11am-7pm; tel 04.90.14.14.14), they can be bought from FNAC shops in all major French cities. During the festival, tickets are available until 4pm for the same day's performances. The Festival Off programme is available from the end of June from Avignon Public Off BP5, 75521 Paris Cedex 11 (tel 01.48.05.01.19, www.avignon-off.org ). During the festival, the office is in the Conservatoire de Musique on place du Palais. Tickets prices range from 50F/¬7.53 to 90F/¬13.73 and a Carte Public Adhérent for 75F/¬11.44 (50F/¬7.53 during the festival) gives you thirty percent off all shows.