The Vieilles Charrues Festival (French: Festival des Vieilles Charrues; Breton: Gouel an Erer Kozh; literally: Old Ploughs Festival) is held every year in mid-July in the city of Carhaix located in the west of Brittany, France.
This festival is the largest music festival in France, attracting more than 200,000 festival-goers every year (270,000 in 2011, 278,000 in 2016). This festival was created in 1992 in Landeleau, a small village in central Finistère. At that time, less than 500 revellers attended and the festival was more like a private party. The following year, the festival welcomed more than 2000 and that was the beginning of its success story. In 1995, due to lack of space on the original site, the festival moved to Carhaix city center and in 1998, for the same reason, the festival chose a site on the outskirts of Carhaix. In October 2016 the festival organizes an exceptional concert at Central Park in New York City in tribute to the many Bretons who were immigrants to the city in the nineteenth century.
Each year, more than 5,500 volunteers enable the festival to be a success, with their actions in the numerous bars, restaurants, and other stands of the festival. The festival thanks them by giving money to local associations. The organizers also helped to finance Hall Glenmor, a concert hall, and to renovate the Château de Kerampuil, a castle located near the site of the festival.
In New York City (Central Park)
In Carhaix
Les Insus (ex-Téléphone)
Alain Souchon & Laurent Voulzy