Lire cet article en français : Les 10 festivals de septembre 2026 en Gironde.
September has become Gironde's true festival month. The weekend of 11 to 13 is a scheduling puzzle in itself: five festivals happen at once, from Climax at Darwin to Balterno at parc de Mussonville and Teste à Têtes on the Bassin. The month closes with the FAB, spread across some twenty venues in the metropolis. Here are the 10 confirmed festivals of the month, with dates, venues and prices, from the most intimate to the most sprawling.
Festival Gribouillis, comics take over the Garage Moderne
For its sixth edition, Gribouillis sticks to its formula: a free book fair, about sixty independent publishers and bookshops, and above all 70 invited authors and illustrators. Quebec's Michel Rabagliati, a major figure of autobiographical comics, is on the guest list, alongside Fanny Dreyer, David Prudhomme, Valfret and Fanny Millard. Illustrator Emmanuel Lantam signs the poster.
The festival stretches far beyond the fair: ten exhibitions run around the city for more than a month, at the Mériadeck library, Espace Saint-Rémi, galerie BAG, the Disparate bookshop and up to Bordeaux Montaigne university. Workshops, meetings, signings, screenings and drawn dance parties round out the programme.
- When: Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2026. Thursday 10am-7pm, Friday 2pm-8pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-7pm
- Where: Garage Moderne, 1 rue des Étrangers, 33300 Bordeaux, plus around ten exhibition venues across the city
- Price: free, all audiences, from early childhood to adults
- Info: festivalgribouillis.fr
We were there last year: to revisit, our report on the 2025 Festival Gribouillis.
L'Assonance Festival 4, two days pay-what-you-can on quai de la Monnaie
L'Assonance's principle does not move: culture for everyone, pay-what-you-can, and free for students on proof. For this fourth edition, the parc des Sports de Saint-Michel hosts an unabashed mix of electro, pop and live performance.
Friday night rolls out Luxie.wav, Alma Mango, Hardwired, Équipe de Foot 33 and Techno Circus. Saturday starts gently with a poetry stage in the afternoon, pole dance demos, circus and a capoeira intro, before shifting into evening with No.Far, Polylogue, Okali Music, Le Bal Chaloupé and Romy White's carte blanche. Food, bar and a makers' market on site.
- When: Friday 11 September from 6pm to midnight, Saturday 12 September from 2pm to midnight
- Where: parc des Sports de Saint-Michel, quai de la Monnaie, 33800 Bordeaux
- Price: pay-what-you-can, free for students
- Info: official listing on the City of Bordeaux website
Musica Vir'Live, Philippe Etchebest and Sanseverino in Virelade
The pleasant surprise of the month, and it is free. Thirty kilometres from Bordeaux, Virelade runs its family festival with a line-up that is anything but small. Friday, chef Philippe Etchebest takes the stage with his band Chef and the Gang, preceded by duo Be'n Jane, trio O C'est Nous and a batucada. Saturday, Sanseverino closes the night, between gypsy swing, electric rock and blues, with the banda La Txaranga « Los Aliados » and the band Gamy as openers.
Doors open at 5.30pm both nights, with activities and inflatables for kids, and an open stage for local talent. The festival is run by the town's associations and the CCAS, and the bar profits go entirely to them.
- When: Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September, doors open at 5.30pm, programme runs until around 11.30pm
- Where: complexe sportif Paul Faubet, 33720 Virelade
- Price: free
- Info: Virelade town website
Festival Balterno, three days of sound system at parc de Mussonville
Seventh edition for Balterno, and the line-up moves up another notch. Friday goes rock and hip-hop with Les Fatals Picards, Poésie Zéro, Yoshi Di Original & Soap and a DJ set by Pussy Ladies. Saturday shifts to electro with Acid Arab in DJ set, les Vulves Assassines, Makoto San and his bamboo techno, Adamee, plus the DJ winner of the Fête de la Morue 2026 contest.
And above all, Sunday is entirely free: Voilaaa Sound System live afro disco, DJ Marakatoo and the cumbia of Candela Viva. The festival combines a classic live stage and its famous sound system caravan, in a wooded park a stone's throw from Bordeaux. Capacity capped at 1,500, so best to plan ahead.
- When: Friday 11 September 7pm to midnight, Saturday 12 from 5pm to midnight, Sunday 13 from 3pm to 8pm
- Where: parc de Mussonville, 33130 Bègles
- Price: 25 € for Friday or Saturday night (28 € on the door), 2-day pass 45 € (50 € on the door), Sunday free, free for under 10s
- Info and tickets: City of Bègles and Balterno Production on HelloAsso
Climax Festival #11, ecology and peace at Darwin
Eleventh edition for the most committed festival of Bordeaux's back-to-school season. This year Climax explores the ties between ecology and peace, with the idea of rethinking our relationship to nature as much as between peoples. In practice, that means three days of talks, round tables and conferences during the day, then concerts and artistic performances in the evening.
Climax's big strength remains its access model: daytime is free, only the evening concerts are paid. So you can come to hear the debates, wander around the Darwin ecosystem and leave without spending a cent.
- When: Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September 2026, from 11am to 9pm
- Where: Darwin écosystème, 87 quai des Queyries, 33100 Bordeaux
- Price: free access during the day, paid evening concerts
- Info: climaxfestival.fr
To grasp the spirit of the place before you go, revisit our piece on Darwin and la caserne Niel and our portrait of Climax Festival.
Teste à Têtes 9, circus and street theatre under the pines
On the Arcachon Bay, the KoMoNò collective turns its circus school into a festival for a weekend. Nine invited companies, circus, street theatre and music, for offerings that are by turns surprising, funny and poetic, accessible at every age.
Around the shows, the Village Guinguette takes on the feel of a country fair: games, DJ sets, cooking by chef Bérangère Fagart and the homemade waffles that have become a local institution. Sunday morning is reserved for young audiences with a matinee from 9.45am.
- When: Friday 11 September from 6.30pm to midnight, Saturday 12 from 2pm to midnight, Sunday 13 from 9.45am to 5.30pm
- Where: KoMoNò CirCuS, plaine des sports Gilbert Moga, rue Gilbert Moga, 33260 La Teste-de-Buch
- Price: online ticketing, reduced rates in advance
- Info: ecole-cirque.fr and tickets on HelloAsso, Collectif KoMoNò
Bordeaux Open Air, the last date at parc Bordelais
Ten years that the free electro festival has been running Bordeaux Sundays across the metropolis's parks. This 13 September date is the last of the season, and it plays out in Caudéran's green lung. Six hours of music with Leen, Coffiiz and Fasme live, food trucks, creative workshops for kids and an accessible site.
Entry is free. The team suggests a voluntary contribution to support the festival, but nothing is required.
- When: Sunday 13 September 2026, from 2pm to 8pm
- Where: parc Bordelais, 33200 Bordeaux
- Price: free entry, voluntary contribution
- Info: bordeauxopenair.fr
If you don't know the venue yet, it features prominently in our selection of the best parks in Bordeaux. And for the atmosphere, here is what Bordeaux Open Air looked like a few editions ago.
American Show, motorbikes and free concerts at the port of Cassy
Three days of American gathering by the Bay, with an exhibitor village set up at the port of Cassy and, above all, an entirely free concert programme. Friday runs Mr Hardearly, the Thomas Sarrodie Group in tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Mégaphone in homage to Téléphone.
Saturday steps it up with Four Blues, Echoo, The Police Vibrations, David Pilarsky and Big Balls, who cover AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Bon Jovi. Sunday opens with a bikers' gathering at 9am, then bike shows from Infernal Varanne Riders, Burning Fox, the Danse Country Club de Cestas and Liane Edwards, before closing at 8pm.
- When: Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September 2026
- Where: port of Cassy, 33138 Lanton
- Price: free, entry and concerts
- Info: american-show33.fr
Connect Skaturbanism Festival, skate as urban planning tool
The most atypical festival of the month, and it is free. Connect presents itself as the first international festival devoted to skate culture and its relationship to urban planning. The idea: to show that skate goes far beyond leisure and becomes a tool to think the city, create bonds and address social questions.
On the programme, exhibitions, conferences and meetings with international figures of skate culture, previews, workshops, concerts, skateable sculptures and sessions across the city. All at square Dom Bedos, on the quays, a stone's throw from the skatepark.
- When: Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 September 2026, from 10am to 8pm
- Where: square Dom Bedos, rue Jacques d'Welles, 33800 Bordeaux
- Price: free
- Info: connect-skaturbanism-festival.com
In the same spirit of urban culture, take a look at our guide to finding street art in Bordeaux.
The FAB, two weeks of live arts across the metropolis
The Festival International des Arts de Bordeaux Métropole closes the month and spills into October. Two weeks of live performance, dance, theatre, circus, visual arts and performances, in around twenty venues across Bordeaux, Bruges, Villenave-d'Ornon, Mérignac, Saint-Médard, Pessac, Gradignan, Artigues-près-Bordeaux, Eysines, Talence and Lormont.
The 2026 edition is built around three threads: inhabiting the city, following the river and its tributaries, and going into the forest, paired with a Mediterranean Season devoted to artists from North Africa and the Middle East. From the opening weekend, you can catch « Frames » by Alexander Vantournhout and the Not Standing company, circus in the forest, and « Maria en ballon » by AÉROSCULPTURE.
- When: Saturday 26 September to Saturday 10 October 2026
- Where: around twenty venues across Bordeaux and its metropolis
- Price: varies by show, online ticketing
- Info: fab.festivalbordeaux.com
And also in September
Balterno Caravane Tour #6, Saturday 26 September. The association closes its caravan sound system season with a last free date at parc des Berges, quai Deschamps, reachable by tram A, stop Stalingrad. An open-air bass music night, bar and food truck on site.
Le Ban des Vendanges de la Jurade, Sunday 20 September. Not a festival strictly speaking, but the biggest wine-country event of the month. The procession of the Jurats in red robes leaves the town hall gardens at 9.45am, the inductions take place at the monolithic church from 11.15am, and the proclamation of the ban des vendanges from the Tour du Roy closes the day. Info on the Grand Saint-Émilionnais tourist office website.
In the same spirit, revisit our evening at the Vendanges Nocturnes of Château Trianon.
Heads up though, no Ouvre la Voix this year. The cycling and music festival by Rock School Barbey, which linked Bordeaux to Sauveterre-de-Guyenne along the Roger Lapébie cycle path every early autumn, will not take place in 2026. The information is announced by the organisers themselves on the Rock School Barbey website, even though several online agendas still list September dates.
Lire cet article en français : Les 10 festivals de septembre 2026 en Gironde.
