Dordogne Festivals 2026: The Périgord Noir Festival Calendar
Photo: lascaux-dordogne
Four weeks, five festivals, and not one of them further than 35 minutes from your door. Open-air theatre in a medieval square, baroque concerts inside a fortified abbey, a street parade with delegations from five continents, and a classical music festival that closes out the season across the region’s finest heritage sites.
Périgord Noir does not slow down once the château gates close for the day. From mid-July through mid-August, La Perle de Domme sits at the centre of a region that fills its evenings with music and performance, most of it a short drive from the terrace. This guide is built week by week, so you can see exactly what’s on before you book.
What’s in this Festival Guide
Week One — 18 to 26 July
The season opens with two festivals already underway when you arrive: open-air theatre in Sarlat’s medieval heart, and chamber music scattered across the region’s churches and châteaux.
Stop 01 · Theatre
Festival des Jeux du Théâtre de Sarlat
18 July – 3 August · 12 km from Domme · 12 min by car
Photo: festival theatre sarlat
France’s oldest theatre festival after Avignon, now in its 74th year, staged entirely in the open air against Sarlat’s honey-stone façades. Eighteen productions this season, classical and contemporary, move between Place de la Liberté, the Jardin des Enfeus, and the cloister of Abbaye Sainte-Claire, a different play every evening. Morning discussions with the cast and directors are open to the public.
→ Book the Jardin des Enfeus or Abbaye Sainte-Claire performances if you want something more intimate than the main square — both seat far fewer people, and the setting does half the work.
Stop 02 · Classical & Chamber Music
Musique en Périgord
20 July – 3 August · 15–30 min from Domme, depending on the venue
Now in its 36th edition, this festival moves chamber music, baroque, and jazz through Romanesque churches and historic estates across the region — Audrix, Saint-Cyprien, the banks of the Vézère at Le Bugue, the park of Château de Campagne. Every programme is chosen to suit the acoustics of its setting, which is really the reason to go.
→ Pair a Sarlat theatre evening one night with a village church concert the next — the two festivals overlap almost entirely and sit within fifteen minutes of each other.
Week Two — 27 July to 2 August
Montignac-Lascaux takes over as the region’s centre of gravity this week, as a week-long world culture festival begins alongside the two already in progress.
Stop 01 · World Music & Dance
Festival Cultures aux Cœurs
27 July – 2 August · 35 km from Domme · 35 min by car
Photo: guide du perigord
Montignac-Lascaux’s 45th edition brings a dozen delegations from five continents for a week of traditional dance, music, and craft — this year including South Africa, Chile, Croatia, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, and Tahiti. Evening shows run on the Terrasse de l’Amitié, alongside a world craft market and exhibitions. On the closing Friday, the town centre pedestrianises for a parade that turns the whole of Montignac into a street party. 2026 also marks the organizing association’s centenary, with an anniversary evening on 1 August.
→ Come for the Friday evening parade if you only make one visit — the town closes to traffic and the procession runs straight through the centre.
Week Three — 3 to 9 August
The region’s flagship classical festival opens, and a fortified abbey a short drive from Domme hosts one of the summer’s most striking settings for baroque music.
Stop 01 · Classical, Baroque & Jazz
Festival du Périgord Noir
Opens 2 August, runs through 16 August · 35 km from Domme · concerts across the region
The 44th edition of the region’s flagship classical music festival opens this week, built around the theme « Voyages — a whole distant world, » carrying listeners from Japan and Africa to the Balkans and baroque England across the festival’s fortnight. The Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles opens with Pergolesi and Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, with Ballaké Sissoko, Anastasia Kobekina, and the Sirba Octet among the artists to follow through heritage sites across Périgord Noir.
→ The festival’s full run stretches into Week Four — see below for the closing dates and how to plan around it.
Stop 02 · Baroque Academy
Académie Baroque Internationale
31 July – 9 August · Abbaye de Saint-Amand-de-Coly · 20 km from Domme · 20 min by car
Photo: festival theatre sarlat
Young singers and instrumentalists from the Festival du Périgord Noir’s training academy perform Purcell’s Royal Odes inside one of the region’s most striking fortified abbeys, in Saint-Amand-de-Coly — one of the Most Beautiful Villages of France. The abbey’s acoustics and its severe Romanesque stone make this one of the more atmospheric evenings of the season.
→ Arrive early enough to walk the village before the concert — Saint-Amand-de-Coly is tiny, and the abbey itself is worth seeing in daylight as well as by candlelight.
Week Four — 10 to 16 August
The season closes as it opened, with the Festival du Périgord Noir running through its final week across the region’s churches and châteaux.
Stop 01 · Classical, Baroque & Jazz
Festival du Périgord Noir — Closing Week
Through 16 August · concerts across the region, 20–40 min from Domme
The festival’s second week continues its programme of chamber music, recitals, and orchestral performances in the region’s churches and heritage sites, with the Paul Lay Trio, the Quatuor Zaïde, and Karol Beffa’s ciné-concerts among the closing fortnight’s highlights. The season winds down gently from here, making mid-August a good window for a last concert before the crowds thin.
→ Tickets for the festival’s most popular evenings sell out days in advance in August. Booking a week ahead, and asking us to arrange dinner around the concert time, makes the evening effortless.
Stay at La Perle de Domme for the Festival Season
Between concerts and performances, every evening ends the same way back on the rooftop terrace with a glass of something cold and the valley spread out below. Perfectly located in the heart of Périgord Noir, we’re the ideal base for a summer built around music and open-air theatre.
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Foire Aux Questions (FAQ)
Yes, especially for the Festival du Périgord Noir and the Sarlat theatre festival in August. The most popular evenings — heritage venue settings like Saint-Amand-de-Coly, or Sarlat’s Place de la Liberté — sell out days ahead. Booking around a week in advance is a safe margin for most performances.
If your stay overlaps with 27 July to 2 August, the Cultures aux Cœurs parade on the closing Friday is one of the most memorable single evenings of the season. Outside that window, a Sarlat theatre evening is the easiest to combine with dinner in town, since the festival runs the entire length of most stays in July and August.
Everything in this guide is within 35 minutes’ drive. Sarlat’s theatre festival is the closest at 12 minutes, while Montignac-Lascaux, home to both Cultures aux Cœurs and the Festival du Périgord Noir, is around 35 minutes.
Bring a light layer even in August — most performances run into the evening in stone courtyards or abbey settings, and the temperature drops quickly once the sun is down. Comfortable shoes are worth it for anything in Sarlat’s old town or Saint-Amand-de-Coly, both cobbled underfoot.