Fest-Noz: The Night Dance of Central Brittany
Brittany, France
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Fest-Noz: The Night Dance of Central Brittany
225 + 100 XP
A fest-noz is a night festival — Breton for exactly that — where a community dances together to live musicians. It is a ball, not a folklore show: the practice died out across Brittany by the end of the 1930s and was deliberately brought back by Loeiz Ropars, who ran the first one in a dance hall at Poullaouen on 30 October 1955 in front of 3,000 people. UNESCO added it to the intangible heritage list on 5 December 2012. There are hundreds of traditional dances, the best known being the gavotte, the an-dro, the hanter-dro, the laridé and the plinn; some are danced in a chain or a round with everyone holding hand and arm, others in couples or in figures. Central Brittany — Haute-Cornouaille, where the revival started — is where they are thickest on the ground, and several hundred are held across Brittany every year.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Pick a fest-noz within driving range off the Tamm-Kreiz agenda, which lists them by date and town across Brittany, cross-check it against the posters in the bars and shop windows of the nearest bourg, and go
2
of 5
Get into a chain or a round rather than watching from the wall: take the hand and the forearm of the dancers either side of you, the way everyone else is holding on, and stay in for a full set
3
of 5
Dance a complete suite through — in Lower Brittany the dances come in sets of two or three, like the gavotte, bal and jabadao of southern Cornouaille — and keep the same partner from the first dance of the suite to the last, because that is the rule and everyone on the floor knows it
4
of 5
Pick out the two singers of kan ha diskan trading phrases with no instruments behind them — the technique that kept the dancing alive in village halls when public balls were banned under the occupation and there was no band to be had — then work out which pairs of sonneurs are playing bombarde with biniou and whether anyone has brought a treujenn-gaol, the old Breton clarinet
5
of 5
Drive the 8 km north to Poullaouen, where Loeiz Ropars ran his kan ha diskan singing contest in 1954 and then the first modern fest-noz on 30 October 1955 — 3,000 people turned up to it — and find the village hall that everything since has come out of
Pick a fest-noz within driving range off the Tamm-Kreiz agenda, which lists them by date and town across Brittany, cross-check it against the posters in the bars and shop windows of the nearest bourg, and go
Get into a chain or a round rather than watching from the wall: take the hand and the forearm of the dancers either side of you, the way everyone else is holding on, and stay in for a full set
Dance a complete suite through — in Lower Brittany the dances come in sets of two or three, like the gavotte, bal and jabadao of southern Cornouaille — and keep the same partner from the first dance of the suite to the last, because that is the rule and everyone on the floor knows it
Pick out the two singers of kan ha diskan trading phrases with no instruments behind them — the technique that kept the dancing alive in village halls when public balls were banned under the occupation and there was no band to be had — then work out which pairs of sonneurs are playing bombarde with biniou and whether anyone has brought a treujenn-gaol, the old Breton clarinet
Drive the 8 km north to Poullaouen, where Loeiz Ropars ran his kan ha diskan singing contest in 1954 and then the first modern fest-noz on 30 October 1955 — 3,000 people turned up to it — and find the village hall that everything since has come out of
Before you go
There is no venue to turn up at: a fest-noz is held wherever the organisers have a hall — usually the salle des fêtes or a community centre, sometimes a sports hall, a concert room, a village square or the enclosure outside a chapel in summer. Check the Tamm-Kreiz listings for the date and the address before you move the van, and expect it to start in the evening and run late, so plan to stay the night rather than drive back. The dances involve holding hands and arms with people you have not met, so decide in advance that you are doing it.
Festoù-noz run on nothing like a concert timetable: groups follow one another on stage in half-hour sets, billed bands play 45 minutes to an hour, and the night usually ends with an improvised jam, so expect to be out very late. If that does not suit children, look for a fest-deiz instead, which is the same thing held in daytime. Most are in village halls with an entry fee at the door, often cash only, and no booking.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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