The Land of Music & Dance

The Bretons are proud of their lively traditional music and dance, which is popular with all ages. You can experience and take part in Breton dances at a Fest Noz (night festival) or Fest Diez (day festival), these often feature traditional singers, "sonneurs" who play bombarde and biniou or clarinet, larger traditional bands and even folk-rock bands. During the summer, many of these dances are held outdoors; locally the Fest Noz at St Mayeux and St Gilles Vieux Marché in July and Mûr de Bretagne in mid August take place in magnificent settings & attract many hundreds of local people and visitors. As well as the music and dancing these are important social events, also offering refreshments at the buvettes (bars) and local specialities such as the sweet and savoury pancakes-crêpes and galettes.

As well as the Festou Noz there are also many renowned Festivals of traditional music and dance in Brittany, many with competition and display dances, with dancers in traditional costume. The Festival de Cornouaille at Quimper, the Kann al Loar at Landerneau, the Fete des Brodeuses at Pont L'Abbé and the the Art-Trad Festival at Mûr de Bretagne all take place in July. The Fête de la Saint Loup at Guingamp and the Festival des Hortensias at Perros Guirec happen in August. Brittany is an important part of the Celtic world and has close links musically with Ireland,Scotland & Wales which are celebrated at the renowned Festival Inter-Celtique at Lorient in early August. This is reputed to be the largest inter-Celtic Festival in the world.

There are also Blues Festivals, in July at La Chèze (near Loudéac) is the Blues au Château, in August at Binic the Festival Autour de Blues and in October at Belle Isle en Terre the Festival Blues des Deux Rivières. There are also rock, pop and world music festivals; a rock festival at Carhaix in late July - Les Vieilles Charrues and world music festivals - Festival des Terres Neuvas Bobital (near Dinan) in July and Le Bout de Monde at Crozon in early August. These are just a few of the festivals which happen in Brittany.

Click here for a festival calendar.

Traditional Music Workshops & PA Hire

We offer a range of traditional music workshops in Guitar with Dik Banovich throughout the year and in traditional fiddle during the summer season with Ronnie Gerrard, (ex New Celeste) who with Dik performed at the Art-Trad Festival in Mûr de Bretagne in July 2006, accompanying the Norwegian Irish Dance troupe Celta. For more information on Workshops click here.

We also offer a PA hire service for small to medium size venues. To view the PA details click here.