The history, the place, the spirit. Everything you need to know before you go, and everything that makes it so special.
There are few events in France that can be said to have the potential to be a great success. in a single proper name. The Django Reinhardt Festival is one of them. You don't say «the Fontainebleau Jazz Festival»: you say Django. And everyone understands.
However, behind this obvious name lies a history that has almost sixty years, A complicated move, an overflowing river, a cemetery that welcomes guitarists from all over the world, and a small town in the Seine-et-Marne region that has found itself, through no fault of its own, having to pass on the legacy of its past. of one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century.
This page tells it all. The festival, of course, its dates, its audience, its atmosphere. But it also tells the man before the festival, the village where he set up his caravan, the inn where he played billiards, and the way in which a simple evening with friends in 1968 has become, step by step, the world's leading gypsy jazz event.
And if you're just looking for practical information on the year's edition, the table of contents at the bottom right will take you straight to it.
Django Reinhardt, the man before the festival
Before being the name of a festival, Django Reinhardt was a guitarist. And it's not just any old thing.
Jean Reinhardt was born on 23 January 1910 in a caravan parked in Liberchies, in Belgium. His family is Sinti, a community more commonly known as Manouche in France. He grew up on the fortifications of Paris, near the Porte de Choisy and then the Porte d'Italie, in this area of the city. trailer periphery that Paris tolerated before pushing it further away. At twelve, he discovered the banjo-guitar with an uncle. By eighteen, he was already playing in cabarets, and the first disc is burned.
Then came the night of 26 October 1928. A fire in the caravan in Saint-Ouen. Celluloid flowers ignited on contact with a candle. His wife pulls through. He is left eighteen months in hospital with a burnt leg and a left hand whose ring and little fingers will remain permanently paralysed. The doctors told him he could no longer play. The opposite is true: he invents a two-finger technique, which no guitarist had ever used before, and which no guitarist will ever really reproduce.
In 1934, with Stéphane Grappelli, he founded the Quintette of the Hot Club de France. It was the first European jazz group to be taken seriously in Chicago and New York. Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Rex Stewart, all the great Americans who passed through Paris that decade were looking for him to record with them. During the Occupation, he stayed in France and recorded Clouds in 1940, which became a standard. In 1946, he crossed the Atlantic to play with Duke Ellington The meeting was lukewarm, Ellington wasn't sure what to make of him, and Django left a little disappointed.
How Django came to Samois
In 1951, he bought a house in rue du Bas-Samois, in Samois-sur-Seine, just north of Fontainebleau. He is forty-one years old, has a son, Babik, born in 1944, and is determined to make a name for himself. to relax for a while. He settled on the banks of the Seine, frequented the inn Chez Fernand which he used as his headquarters, and developed a life there that is rarely associated with guitar geniuses.
He lives in Samois just two years old. On 16 May 1953, after a long walk in the sun, he sat down on the terrace of Chez Fernand to catch his breath. He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died in Fontainebleau hospital. He is forty-three years old. His last recording was just five weeks earlier, and it was his first session with a pianist, Martial Solal, who has vivid memories of it.
He is buried at Plot V of the Samois-sur-Seine communal cemetery. His wife Sophie joined him there in 1971, his son Babik in 2001, and his brother Joseph, also known as Nin-Nin. The tomb has become a museum, with no plan, no signage and no cultural subsidy, one of the most authentic pilgrimage sites for European music. Manouche guitarists from the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the United States set down their instruments for an impromptu jam session at the grave site. This is what pilgrimage movement, It's a family-friendly, community-based, low-key event that will eventually become a festival.
Samois, the island of the cradle, where it all begins
The first public tribute to Django takes place 19 May 1968 in Samois, on the fifteenth anniversary of his death. The newspaper Le Monde of 21 May soberly headlines «The memory of Django celebrated in Samois». The event takes place on l'île du Berceau, A narrow strip of land in the middle of the Seine, reached by a simple footbridge from the village. At the time, the journalist covering the story spoke of a simple evening with friends. For an event that is set to go global, this is not a bad start.
The evening was repeated from time to time, with no fixed frequency, in 1973 and 1978. The Friends of Samois, a local association, are organising increasingly large gatherings: gypsy caravans are beginning to arrive every summer to camping on the banks, playing at night, talking guitar, passing on the pump to their children. The festival doesn't officially exist yet, but it's already there, in embryo, on the island.
It was in 1983 that the whole thing took shape. A group of friends and aficionados around Jean-François Robinet, a former television presenter and mayor of Samois-sur-Seine, and Maurice Cullaz, The Association du Festival Django Reinhardt was officially registered on 22 July 1983. The official registration was dated 22 July 1983, and the headquarters were at the Town Hall, Place de la République. The first annual festival was held the following summer.
A chronicler of the time wrote: « it was so rural, so messy, but so convincing and charming! ». The programme is put together with bits and pieces, the stage is set on the grass, There's a lot of noise, the sound engineers wallow on their consoles when it's raining, and nobody really knows how many people will turn up. The festival's official website has this memory of'debonair and assumed amateurism. Very quickly, the formula found its audience. One journalist described the event as «smallest of the big festivals». The phrase stuck to the festival's skin, and ended up becoming an official signature because it was too pretty not to be.
Three decades of Île du Berceau
From 1983 to 2015, the festival lived on the island. It was during this period that its legend was forged. The format evolved from one day to three days, then to five days from 2010, but the DNA doesn't move: an official stage, And all around, in campsites, on footpaths, all the way to the banks of the Seine, jam sessions that never stop.
On stage : Stéphane Grappelli (present from the first editions, introduced by Claude Nougaro), Babik Reinhardt in regular presence until his death in 2001, Stochelo Rosenberg and Biréli Lagrène who are becoming regulars, Tchavolo and Dorado Schmitt, Angelo Debarre, the Boulou brothers and Elios Ferré, Christian Escoudé. On the American side : Chet Baker, Barney Kessel, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia. And some more rare but memorable appearances: Toots Thielemans, Didier Lockwood, Sanseverino, Thomas Dutronc.
Off stage, in the campsites, it's the world Mecca of Gypsy jazz. Whole families arrived in caravans from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain and the United States. Children learn to pump at six looking at the elders. Friendships are made that last a lifetime. Nobody sleeps. It's this community dimension, more than the headliners, that gives the festival its international reputation.
Flooding, safety, moving house
The end of the island arrives without us really seeing it coming, for both material and epochal reasons.
The following year, in January 2017, the decision was made official: the festival leaves the island for good and moved to Fontainebleau. There are many reasons for this. The flood showed the fragility of a site surrounded by the Seine, Access is via a footbridge. Post-attack security context imposes Vigipirate standards that an island cannot hold. And the logistics of the festival, which has become that of an event attended by tens of thousands of people, can no longer be accommodated in the island's traditional format.
The festival's artistic director, Sébastien Vidal, who has been at the helm since 2006 and is also director of TSF Jazz and the Duc des Lombards, recounts those days. with an honesty that deserves to be quoted : « It was hard to leave the Ile du Berceau, which had been our home since 1968, and to let go of the traditional side of the business. Everyone is nostalgic for it. »
The Facebook page of Samois'OFF, a free parallel programme that brought the village to life during the festival, published in 2017 a brief and sad message Samois'OFF 2017 is over, and so is the festival. With the departure of the festival...«. There was no major controversy in the press, no open conflict between Samois town hall and the association, but we could sense that a certain world was coming to an end.
However, this is an important point, the festival has never cut its ties with Samois. The festival's official programme page retains the title «SAMOIS». An opening day in Samois, on Place de la République, will be maintained from 2018 to 2024. And the memory of Django, obviously remains at the cemetery.
The Fontainebleau Festival today
Since 2017, the festival has found its new home in the Prairie du Bois d'Hyver, in the grounds of the Château de Fontainebleau, Avenue des Cascades. You enter through a discreet gate opening onto a vast lawn bordered by forest. Two scenes: the Django stage, and the Luthiers' stage, A more intimate setting, nestling in the heart of a village of around twenty instrument makers who have come together for four days.
La fiftieth edition, in 2018, The new era opened in grand style, with George Benson, Marcus Miller, Biréli Lagrène, Snarky Puppy, Gary Clark Jr.. The fortieth sequential edition, in 2019, featured Parov Stelar, Ibrahim Maalouf, Thomas Dutronc and Les Esprits Manouches, Tom Misch. Then came the two COVID years which deprived the festival of its 2020 and 2021 editions, with no official announcement of cancellation for 2021 (the change in numbering, from the fortieth edition in 2019 to the forty-second edition in 2022, indirectly confirms this).
Since the return of 2022, the festival has been back on track. a comfortable cruising speed and a line-up that's sure to please the curious music lover. Jamie Cullum, Ibrahim Maalouf, Stochelo Rosenberg, Melody Gardot in 2022. Gregory Porter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, GoGo Penguin, Avishai Cohen, Fatoumata Diawara in 2023, with around twenty thousand spectators over the four days. Melody Gardot, Black Pumas, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Jalen Ngonda, Angelo Debarre in 2024, seventeen thousand spectators. Marcus Miller, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Chucho Valdés, Salif Keita, Kokoroko, AYỌ in 2025.
The challenge of programming has become clearer over the years. The Django stage doesn't just play gypsy jazz. It brings together, around the name of Django, everything that in today's music still holds sway. crossover, crossbreeding, swing in the broadest sense of the term. You can hear soul, funk, North American jazz, world music, Brazilian vocals and Israeli folk. And in the middle of this vast panorama, the Luthiers stage continues to carry the historic heart of Gypsy music, There's a whole range of activities on offer, from direct heirs to the instrument, workshops, young guitarists competing at the Tremplin des Luthiers, and demonstrations by instrument makers.
Audience profile
The festival was a success that rare thing at the same time to the historic gypsy audience, who camp or lodge nearby and spend three days on site, to the curious jazz public, who comes for Cécile McLorin Salvant or Avishai Cohen without knowing much about Django, and to the local public, who discovered the event because he lives just ten minutes away on foot. It's this mix that makes the Prairie such a great place to meet generations, languages, listening styles, all on the same pitch.
The event is organised by the Django Reinhardt Festival Association, based at stayed in Samois-sur-Seine (rue Victor Chevin). Jean-Pierre Guyard is publishing director, Sébastien Vidal is programming director. for twenty years this year. Institutional support comes mainly from the Région Île-de-France, the Département de Seine-et-Marne, the Ville de Fontainebleau, SACEM and private partners.
The festival in the Gypsy world
To understand why this festival is not just another jazz festival, You have to step aside and look at the world map of gypsy jazz.
There are roughly four or five major international events a year for this very specific musical community. DjangoFest Northwest, in Langley, Washington, is the North American benchmark, held in the autumn in a small island town reminiscent of Samois. Django à la Chope, in Brussels, ran from mid-May until its closure in 2022. More confidential gatherings exist in the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Italy and even Australia.
But none of these festivals have what Fontainebleau has: the legitimacy of the place. Django lived in Samois, he died there, he is buried there, and his son and brother are buried with him. The festival, even when relocated to Fontainebleau, retains this physical link with the place where the inventor of the genre died. It is this geographical legitimacy that has led Gypsy families in Amsterdam, Munich and Budapest to consider Fontainebleau as their home. a must at least once in their musical lives.
The other distinguishing mark is the transmission size. The festival has never been just a showcase. The historic jam sessions in Samois played this role. In Fontainebleau, this function is now performed by the Luthiers stage, by the Tremplin des Luthiers (a competition reserved for young artists), by the masterclasses figures such as David Reinhardt, Django's grandson and a contemporary guitarist, and the educational workshops organised in parallel with the music schools. It's all important: gypsy jazz is one of the few musical genres still transmitted almost exclusively by ear, from generation to generation. Without events like Fontainebleau, this chain would be weakened.
Memory, pilgrimage, and the village where everything remains
If you're coming to the festival from Paris or elsewhere, and you've got two hours to kill on a Sunday morning before the first stage, make a diversion to Samois-sur-Seine. It's a ten-minute drive from Fontainebleau, and even by public transport it's not complicated.
In the village, you will find the Foyer Django Reinhardt, At 2 rue Gambetta, a former bakery has been taken over by the local authority and is used as a projection and exhibition room. During the week of the festival, there is a retrospective photo exhibition on the Samois editions. For the rest of the year, the venue is used as a library and entertainment venue.
La Django's house, still exists. Its current legal status is not publicly documented, and it's better not to invite yourself for no reason. Let's just say that you'll pass it on the way back to the hostel, and you'll know. As for Chez Fernand, The inn where Django entertained, played and painted, and where he collapsed, has changed hands several times since 1953. But the banks of the Seine haven't really changed much.
For older Samois editions, the Médiathèque Municipale de Fontainebleau keeps Jean-François Robinet's reference book, 50 years of the Django Reinhardt Festival: 1968-2018, published to mark the company's fiftieth anniversary. If you want to take a serious dive into the archives, this is the place to start.
Practical information about the festival
This year's edition is still being held end of June, usually in the last week. Four days, from Thursday to Sunday, on the Prairie du Bois d'Hyver, within the Parc du Château de Fontainebleau, avenue des Cascades. The site is accessible 20 minutes on foot from Fontainebleau-Avon station, through the city centre.
Tickets
There are generally three ticket formats. Four-day pass, which starts at around 135 euros and gives access to both stages for the entire duration. The two-day pass, At around 70 euros, for those who want to make a weekend of it without spending the whole week. Day pass, Tickets range from €40 to €52, depending on the day and the headliner. Tickets are free for children under thirteen. The ticket office generally opens at the beginning of the year, and four-day passes leave quickly when the poster is in high demand.
How to get here
If you arrive by train, it's Fontainebleau-Avon station from Gare de Lyon, in forty minutes. From the station, the château is about a twenty-minute walk along avenue Franklin Roosevelt, or three bus stations on line 1. If you are arriving by car, the nearest car park to the site is the Maréchaux car park, five minutes from the festival entrance.
Where to sleep
Four days at the height of the season, it's best to plan a few weeks in advance Fontainebleau is saturated at the end of June between the festival, the gardens of the Château and the climbers' weekends. Three good addresses, by range:
- Top of the range : l'Aigle Noir Fontainebleau, MGallery Collection, Just opposite the Château. Five minutes' walk from the Prairie du Bois d'Hyver.
- Cultural hotel : L'Esquisse, The original Fontainebleau concept is more in Barbizon, but the experience is well worth the diversions if you have the car.
- Good city-centre address : l'Hôtel Le Richelieu, Just a few streets from the Château, practical and welcoming.
Where to eat between two stages
The festival has its own range of food trucks and stalls on site, but many festival-goers prefer to enjoy the city centre The Château is just ten minutes from Rue Grande. Some good values:
- Inalis, This creative neo-bistro on Rue de France offers the best contemporary cuisine in the city centre.
- Le Cadran, This cosy Napoleonic bistro is perfect for a no-fuss lunch.
- Le Café des Halles, a Bellifontaine institution on the Place du Marché, faster.
- Maison Sumac for a Mediterranean diversions before the evening show.
And if it rains on a Saturday
Most of the festival is held under tents and marquees, So a shower in June doesn't cancel anything. But if you have a Thursday or Sunday to organise and the weather is playing tricks on you, you can Plan your day with our cheat sheet on what to do in Fontainebleau when it rains.
To conclude, briefly
The Django Reinhardt Festival survived many things A founder who died at the age of forty-three and whose memory had to be honoured without caricaturing him, a drowning island, A move that could have broken the magic, two years without a show, changes of era and line-up. But it's still here, at the end of July.