The Paris festival year runs from June to late August and lives in the city's big green edges: the Bois de Vincennes to the east and the Domaine de Saint-Cloud just past the western city limits. Between them sits the one night when the whole city plays music, the Fête de la Musique on 21 June.
Festivals · Paris
June is the dense month. We Love Green sets up on the Plaine de la Belle Étoile in the Bois de Vincennes, mixing electronic, pop, hip-hop and indie with food stalls built around sustainability and a stage given over to talks on the ecological transition. Then on 21 June the Fête de la Musique, a national institution since 1982, turns streets, squares and bar terraces into free stages, amateur bands and professional sets side by side until late.
Summer weekends belong to the Paris Jazz Festival at the Parc Floral, inside the Bois de Vincennes: afternoon concerts on the lawn, where the ticket is essentially the park entry, and a crowd of families, picnics and serious jazz listeners in the same field. It is the slowest-paced festival in the city and the easiest to drop into on a whim.
The season closes at the end of August with Rock en Seine in the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, just outside the city limits on the west bank of the Seine, reached by metro line 10 to Boulogne - Pont de Saint-Cloud or by tram. It has run since 2003 and is the big rock and pop event of the Paris summer, several days across multiple stages under old trees. First-timer notes: book early for the headline days, bring layers because the park cools fast after sunset, and plan the walk back to the metro, which is where the evening queues form.
At the end of August, over several days in the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, just west of Paris. The easiest way there is metro line 10 to Boulogne - Pont de Saint-Cloud. Check Mood for the current programme and tickets.
June brings We Love Green in the Bois de Vincennes, the first of the Paris Jazz Festival's weekend concerts at the Parc Floral and the Fête de la Musique on 21 June, when concerts play for free across the city. Mood lists the current dates and tickets.
Yes. The Fête de la Musique takes place every year on 21 June, and most of its concerts in Paris are free, on streets, squares and bar terraces, with amateur and professional musicians alike. Some venues run ticketed shows the same night, which you can find on Mood.
On the Plaine de la Belle Étoile in the Bois de Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, in June. It combines electronic, pop, hip-hop and indie music with a programme on sustainability. See Mood for the current listing.
