Paris Autumn Festival (Festival d’Automne à Paris)

Mid-September through late December

The Autumn Festival marks the return of Parisians from their August holidays and the start of the city’s cultural season. When it was founded in 1972, the festival incorporated two existing events—Semaines Musicales Internationales and the Festival of International Dance—with theater and art exhibitions. It now encompasses film, photography, and other contemporary arts on an international scale.

Most of the theater presentations are experimental in some way, and they have included productions by Richard Foreman’s Ontological Hysteric Theatre from the United States, Peter Stein’s Schaubuhne am Halleschen Ufer from West Berlin, Denmark’s Odin Teatret, Poland’s Teatr Cricot 2, and Taganka Theatre from the former U.S.S.R.

Composers whose works have been performed there include Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti, John Cage, and Iannis Zenakis. Martha Graham’s, Merce Cunningham’s, and Maurice Béjart’s dance companies have performed at the festival, as have the New York Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, and the Orchestre de Paris. Events are held in numerous locations throughout Paris, among them the Pompidou Center, the Théâtre de Chaillot, and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.