How the Off festival became the “in” event

The “Off”, which opens this Wednesday, is now a must for companies and programmers. Record number of shows, loyal audience, international outreach… The little brother of the In has largely earned its letters of nobility.

NThere are many companies that flock to the Avignon Off every year, hoping to see their show programmed for the following season. A question of visibility or simple survival. Looking at the crazy figures for this 58^e edition — 1,666 shows, a record!, and nearly 25,000 curtain raisers, a slight decrease compared to last year — such a bet seems daring. How to stand out in such a forest of proposals? “The Off is today the hub of independent live entertainment in France”, assures Hugues Leforestier, vice-president of Avignon Festival & Compagnies (AF & C), the association in charge of organizing the festival. “It’s the only place where programmers can see so many shows.” And so do their shopping.

Because, unlike Paris, which is often inaccessible for troops, Avignon remains a financially reasonable choice for many of them. And this, despite the sharp inflation in rental prices in recent years. “The public is loyal and goes to the theaters in large numbers,” explains Harold David, who arrived in 2022 to head the festival alongside Laurent Domingos. Proof of this is that last year, the festival generated nearly twenty-seven million euros in revenue thanks to the 1,955,000 tickets sold.

Yet, AF&C co-chairman remembers “from a time not so long ago when it was almost degrading for artists to come and play in the Off.” The financial crisis of 2008, the subsequent cuts in subsidies and the rise in the quality of programmed shows changed the situation. “Places have been set up to meet the demand of subsidized companies seeking distribution, where they did not need it before. Mechanically, there is a translation effect of programmers and audiences towards these proposals.” More recently, the increase in fixed costs of public theatres has led some venues to look at Off programming to build part of their season. “The share of budgets allocated to creation having fallen considerably, coming to the Off has become essential for them to find less expensive shows to program,” says Hugues Leforestier. “It’s something that we saw being put in place quite quickly. In the 2010s, this was still not the case,” observes Laurent Domingos. The festival is a concrete example of the new porosity between public and private theatre. “The professionalization of the Off led by AF & C has ensured that so-called “public” artists find it appropriate to come and present their shows here. The Off is no longer on the fringes as it was in its early days.”

Today, essential for the dissemination of live shows in France, the festival does not intend to stop there. Opening up internationally is one of the projects led by the management. “This year there are more than four hundred shows accessible to a non-French speaking audience, and therefore likely to find international outlets. We want to become an international marketplace,” confides Harold David. For this 2024 edition, Avignon will host a large program dedicated to Taiwan, the guest country of honor. Proof, if any were needed, of the incredible vitality of this festival, which has become more “on” than “off” over the years.