Facts and figures

THE AVIGNON FESTIVAL

- presents, each year, between 35 and 40 different shows, French and non-French, totaling about 300 performances. Two thirds of them are world or French premieres. 

- organizes, in the framework of the shows, encounters with Festival artists, readings of new texts, film projections
and exhibitions that permit the spectator to become more familiar with the body of work of the artists presented by showing it
from different angles.

- transforms about 20 venues, most often historical and outdoors, into theater spaces, extremely varied in terms of their architecture and capacity: from 50 to 2,000 seats.

- delivers between 120,000 and 150,000 tickets for shows that charge admission and welcomes between 20,000 and 40,000 spectators to its free events. As for the spectators themselves, 35% come from the region around Avignon, 20% from the Ile-de-France, 35% from other French regions and 10% from abroad. Since 2008, the Festival has registered an average attendance greater than 93%.

- brings together over 450 journalists from France and abroad who write over 2,000 articles on the Festival, which is covered live through television and radio programs. All the major supports of the written press send correspondents to it. More than 50 photographers cover the event.

- gathers nearly 3,500 performing arts professionals who come from the whole world to organize professional meetings on the performing arts and cultural policies. A genuine professional forum, the Festival holds debates every day in which ideas and viewpoints are compared, constituting a unique moment in European cultural life. Printed in 20,000 copies, a Guide for the performing arts professional details all the discussions and information points intended for professionals in the sector. Introduced in 2007, the Rencontres européennes proposes a reflection space for envisaging the European project through the prism of art and culture. 

- publishes each year 50,000 preliminary programs and 160,000 programs (in French and English). In July, 50,000 spectator guides (a calendar of all the free events of the Festival) are distributed at the Festival itself. The Internet site, in French and English, is increasingly visited (800,000 visits in 2011). Created in June 2010, the Facebook page of the Festival gathers more than 11,500 fans.

- is a not-for-profit association governed by the law of 1901, funded by the French government (Ministry of Culture and Communication), the city of Avignon, the Grand Avignon communauté d'agglomération, the Vaucluse administrative department, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and the European Union cultural program.

- has a board of directors chaired by Louis Schweitzer and comprised of representatives of the French government (Georges-François Hisch, François Budeyron and Denis Louche) and regional administrations (Marie-Josée Roig, Michel Bissière and Michel Galvane for the City of Avignon ; Michel Tamisier for the Conseil général de Vaucluse ; Cécile Helle for the Conseil régional Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) as well as qualified personalities (Laure Adler, Christiane Bourbonnaud, Gérard Vantaggioli, Pierre-Hubert Menard, Denis Podalydès et Jean-Pierre Vincent).

- has a budget of 12 million euros for 2011. Its expenditures are broken down into a third for purchasing the shows and coproductions, a third for the preparation and operation of the different performance venues and a third for operations and communication. 55% of its financial resources come from official subsidies (54% from the French government, 24% from the city of Avignon, 9,5% from the Vaucluse administrative department, 8% from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, 3.5% from the Grand Avignon communauté d'agglomération and 1.5% from the European Union ) and 45% from the Festival's own revenue (ticket sales, sponsorship, specific partnerships).

- has established long-lasting sponsor relations, whose major contributor is the Crédit Coopératif Foundation. In 2006, the Festival set up a group of companies that are Festival partners, composed of 25 small and medium-sized firms and, in 2011, a club of individual donators.

- generates economic benefits for the city estimated in 2001 at 23 million euros, without counting the financial impact of the other events (the off, professional encounters, etc.).

- Avignon is also home to the Off, about 1000 companies presenting works on their own initiative in about a hundred different venues, finding necessary funding.