Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
Bouillez ! Festival Des Arts De La Rue (Street Performance Festival) – Val En Vignes, France
10 mins
A long-standing festival of street performers, Bouillez ! fuses old and new traditions to bring vibrancy and vigour to a small community in rural France.
Bouillez ! Festival Des Arts De La Rue
A recent trip to Switzerland and France (more posts coming soon) fortunately coincided with an annual event with which I have a tenuous connection. After doing a short exchange to France at the age of 16, I have always kept in touch with my former host family. In the interim they have moved from Clermont-Ferrand, home of volcanoes and Michelin tyres, back to their home in the Deux-Sèvres, a rural département near the Loire Valley.
This region has experienced a lot of the same challenges as many rural regions in Europe and beyond. It’s harder to make a living through farming, the population is aging as young people move away, and there are fewer and fewer businesses and services locally. Some communities have accepted this fate or not had the means to challenge it, while others have sought to establish new meaning in the 21st Century or put themselves on the map in other ways.
Bouillé St Paul is in the latter camp. A tiny hamlet of about 300 people, it has joined forces with a handful of other villages in recent years to become one organisational unit: Val en Vignes. Bouillé St Paul has one thing the others do not, however: a long-standing festival of street performances, Bouillez ! (there’s wordplay there in French).
My second visit to Bouillez ! allowed me to see a range of performances by local artists and those from further afield. The festival’s 25th anniversary also brought opportunities for reflection on how it both recalls and diverges from earlier rhythms of life in the countryside.
A Street Performance Festival Where There Are No Streets
Ok that’s a slight exaggeration, but only slight. The unusual idea to have a street performance festival in this little rural village has an interesting history. In the mid 1990s, the incumbent mayor and council stepped aside to allow a changing of the guard and handover to the next generation. Fortuitous timing first allowed the newcomers to purchase the local château (more information here in French). As an aside, they purchased it at a ‘candle auction‘, an odd French custom I’ve just learned about. The château became the mairie, or town hall, and also created a public space in the heart of the village.
The next stage was to create something to reinvigorate the local community and create opportunities for local people. Mayor Jean Giret and his associates first tried what they called a ‘festacle’ (joining the French words for festival and show), in essence a small music festival. After studying other examples, however, they decided to focus on les arts de la rue.
The model has proved successful: the festival is now in its 25th year. Companies from many different countries have taken part, some returning more than once. Other performers have been sourced closer to home. The need for volunteers has ensured a strong community spirit remains. The festival also gives opportunities for local people to develop skills in event management, catering and more. A special gala event will celebrate this 25 year milestone in September, and I hope Bouillez ! continues to have a long life beyond this.
Let’s take a look now at the festival itself!
Bouillez ! Day 1: Vanessa Jousseaume
There are two peculiarities to note with Bouillez ! One is that the festival runs over two days but only in the late afternoon/evening. The other is that there are no events in parallel, you can see everything. I imagine the former is because of how hot it can get around here during the day. And the latter is quite useful for those with FOMO. But anyway, here we are wandering into town just before 5PM on day 1.Time to pick up our tickets from the château grounds, and then have a look around. There’s not too much remaining in terms of original castle buildings, but the space lends itself well to outdoor performances (just as well!).And it’s time now to walk over to the former primary school, now an events space, for the first event.Vanessa Jousseaume is a local artist and architect. This work is entitled L’inventaire du monde àperdre (The Inventory of the World to Lose). It’s a sort of psychogeographical work, involving several installations and storytelling.Jousseaume tells the story of a property owned by her grandfather, tenanted for years by a Romany couple. After they left, Jousseaume discovered a wealth of materials documenting the natural world around the farm. Framed feathers, embroidered spiderwebs, drawings of plants’ roots: a collection which catalogues the region’s rich flora and fauna.The scientific detail in this work is verifiably accurate. Is the romantic story of its origins, too? Part of the experience is making up your own mind on that front. But it was a great introduction to Bouillez !, rooting us in local place and traditions and getting us out exploring the village.Now I see why they have this festival in the evening, it was really hot even at 6 PM… So time for a quick stop for a beverage and a sit down at the only bar/restaurant in town, Le Relais des deux tours.
Day 1 Continued: Cyril Maguy, Compagnie du Deuxième, Compagnie Ça Va Sans Dire
Back over to the main festival grounds to see what’s next.Each day has a musical act, and Day 1’s is Cyril Maguy. His covers of classic songs are crowd pleasers, and I’ve never seen such a practical approach to bringing your own stage with you!Up next is something completely different, a slapstick show entitled Animaniversaire by La Compagnie du Deuxième. It involves them attempting to set up a buffet to sell us their services but, as you can imagine, it isn’t smooth sailing and hilarity ensures.But did anyone else think those clouds were starting to look a bit threatening? So we all take a brief break to shelter from the rain and hailstones. The dangers of an outdoor festival!Ok we’re back in business. The physical humour of slapstick makes this a great event for all ages, and is accessible for non-French speakers (many events at Bouillez ! are not). The clean up at the end, however, is not insignificant!Time now for an aperitif and speeches in honour of this 25 year milestone. And then it’s time for dinner, with a second set by Cyril Maguy.But the rain is on its way back now… The next event is quickly transferred to a large barn onsite. It’s by Compagnie Ça Va Sans Dire, who have interviewed volunteers past and present in order to tell the story of the festival’s origins. Unfortunately not very interesting for the Urban Geographer who didn’t understand a word, but it’s where I got all the details for the section above! Also unfortunately, the final event was not barn-friendly and so was cancelled. Off home to bed, with flashes of lightning to guide our way.
Bouillez ! Day 2: Compagnie L’Ouvrage, Pierres Et Fils, Compagnie Adhok
Right, we’re back on day 2! First up is Compagnie L’Ouvrage with their work Tous mes voeux du bonheur (All My Best Wishes). Again you need to speak French to follow. Laure Bonnet plays various female roles in conversation with a bride at a wedding. Their memories of love, love lost, domestic violence, societal expectations etc. are quite heavy going, even more so when you realise that, like Compagnie Ça Va Sans Dire last night, it’s taken from interviews with local people. There are signposted resources to local women’s organisations.The music today is provided by Pierres et Fils. They are a brass band (fanfare in French) with stage presence to spare. They guide us from the field next to the church where the last show took place, back to the main festival ground.Pierres et Fils really know how to put on a show, and are a big hit with the crowd.Here comes our next act, Compagnie Adhok. They are doing two shows today, the first of which is L’Envol (Flight).L’Envol, the first of two shows Adhok are performing today, takes us through the town. It is a response to the question ‘What is it to be young, today?’. In a high energy performance we see the nine dancers at a job interview, or on a date. They exaggerate the sometimes Kafka-esque nature of our daily lives in order to expose it. Repetition and escalation quickly bring the dancers to extremes of movement and emotion.It’s a very clever show: easily adapted to each location it visits. The crowd are entranced, and it’s accessible even to those who don’t speak French thanks to its strong physicality.And now we head back for another community aperitif. I could get used to this lifestyle.
Day 2 Continued: Community Dinner, Pierres Et Fils, Circo Carpa Diem, Compagnie Adhok
Dinner on Day 2 (accompanied towards the end by Pierres et Fils) is a special event. Since the beginning of the festival, a community meal has always been an integral part of it. There are even locals who come for the meal and not the festival. It used to be a sit down affair, but Covid has changed it into a salad box. Nonetheless, there is a continuity here with the big community meals Bouillé St Paul has held since time immemorial. Once upon a time it was a shared meal after a day’s work in the fields, perhaps around harvest time. Today’s version looks a little different, but is an echo of the same tradition.Pierres et Fils really are a lot of fun, and their second set draws the crowds towards the stage area while things are set up for the evening’s performances.The penultimate performance today is by the only foreign company in this year’s line up, Circo Carpa Diem. This Italian duo perform an acrobatic act including bicycles, a pole, and baking a loaf of bread.It’s a lot of fun, and to be honest this is the sort of thing that comes to mind when I think of street performance. Bouillez ! has quite a broad definition which is interesting in and of itself. But it’s nice to finish on a couple of primarily visual, physical shows that everyone in the audience can enjoy.And now it’s time for the final show. Compagnie Adhok are back (after a quick shower and presumably a lie down to recover) with Le nid (The Nest). This is almost a prequel to L’envol earlier today: before the fledglings were taking flight, now they are emerging from their nest.Again the show is physical and funny: the nine dancers are birds in a nest, children and then teenagers growing up before our eyes. They must assert their independence and dare to leave the nest, but what will they find there? Like L’envol, Le nid encourages us through dance and humour to reflect on society and our role in it. The big nest is very impressive, and this is a great way to end.Good night, then, from Bouillez ! If you would like to learn more about the 25th anniversary gala, for which several past companies will return, click here.
