{"id":11315,"date":"2026-05-18T19:18:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/fr\/?page_id=11315"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:33:19","slug":"django-reinhardt-festival","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/festival-django-reinhardt\/","title":{"rendered":"Django Reinhardt Festival in Fontainebleau"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"fyblog-page-hero\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1429\" src=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-scaled.png\" alt=\"Django Reinhardt Festival in Fontainebleau: Selmer-Maccaferri gypsy guitar\" class=\"wp-image-11316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-scaled.png 2560w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-1536x857.png 1536w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-2048x1143.png 2048w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-18x10.png 18w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-fontainebleau-guitare-manouche-100x56.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/figure>\n<h1 class=\"fyblog-page-hero-title\">Django Reinhardt Festival in Fontainebleau<\/h1>\n<p class=\"fyblog-article-subtitle\">The history, the location, the atmosphere. Everything you need to know before you go, and everything that makes it so special.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fyblog-callout fyblog-callout--info\"><strong>Edition 2026 :<\/strong> from <strong>25 to 28 June 2026<\/strong>, Prairie du Bois d\u2019Hyver, Fontainebleau Castle Park. Now showing: <strong>Asaf Avidan, Cory Wong, MEUTE, Thee Sacred Souls, Jos\u00e9 James, Youn Sun Nah<\/strong>, and the whole Gypsy jazz family around Stochelo Rosenberg. <a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/events\/django-reinhardt-festival-2026\/\">Full programme and ticket information for the 2026 edition<\/a>.<\/div>\n<aside class=\"fyblog-toc-floating\"><input id=\"fyblog-toc-toggle\" class=\"fyblog-toc-toggle-input\" type=\"checkbox\" \/><br \/>\n<label class=\"fyblog-toc-button\" for=\"fyblog-toc-toggle\">\u2261 Contents<\/label><\/p>\n<nav class=\"fyblog-toc-panel\"><a href=\"#django\">Django, the man<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#samois\">Samois, where it all begins<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#demenagement\">The move<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#fontainebleau\">The festival today<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#manouche-monde\">The gypsy planet<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#memoire\">Memory and pilgrimage<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#pratique\">Practical info<\/a><\/nav>\n<\/aside>\n<p>There are few events in France that can be said to hold <strong>in a single proper name<\/strong>. The Django Reinhardt Festival is one of them. You don't say \u00abthe Fontainebleau Jazz Festival\u00bb: you say <em>Django<\/em>. And everyone understands.<\/p>\n<p>However, behind this obvious name lies a history that has almost <strong>sixty years<\/strong>, A complicated move, an overflowing river, <strong>a cemetery that welcomes guitarists from all over the world<\/strong>, and a small town in Seine-et-Marne which, without really seeking to, found itself having to carry on the legacy <strong>one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This page tells it all. The festival, of course, its dates, its audience, its atmosphere. But it also tells <strong>The man before the festival<\/strong>, the village where he parked his caravan, the pub where he used to play snooker, and the way in which <strong>a simple evening with friends in 1968<\/strong> has become, step by step, the world's leading gypsy jazz event.<\/p>\n<p>And if you\u2019re just looking for practical information about this year\u2019s edition, the table of contents in the bottom right-hand corner will take you straight there.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"django\">Django Reinhardt: the man behind the festival<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1.png\" alt=\"Detail of a hand playing the pompe manouche on a Selmer-Maccaferri guitar\" class=\"fyblog-img-wrap-left wp-image-11327\" width=\"380\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1.png 2048w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-1536x1536.png 1536w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-12x12.png 12w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-jazz-manouche-guitare-detail-1-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/>Before becoming the name of a festival, Django Reinhardt was a guitarist. <strong>And not just any one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jean Reinhardt was born on 23 January 1910 in <strong>a caravan parked in Liberchies<\/strong>, in Belgium. His family are Sinti, a community more commonly known as Manouche in France. He grew up on the ramparts of Paris, near the Porte de Choisy and later the Porte d\u2019Italie, in this <strong>trailer periphery<\/strong> 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, <strong>and the first disc is burned<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Then came the night of 26 October 1928. <strong>A fire<\/strong> in the caravan, in Saint-Ouen. Celluloid flowers that catch fire when they come into contact with a candle. His wife survives. He remains <strong>eighteen months in hospital<\/strong> with a burnt leg and a left hand in which the ring finger and little finger will remain permanently paralysed. <strong>The doctors tell him that he will no longer be able to play.<\/strong> The opposite happens: he makes it up <strong>a two-finger technique<\/strong>, which no guitarist had ever used before him, and which no one will ever truly replicate.<\/p>\n<p>In 1934, with St\u00e9phane Grappelli, he founded the <strong>Quintette of the Hot Club de France<\/strong>. It was the first European jazz band to be taken seriously in Chicago and New York. Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Rex Stewart, <strong>all the great Americans who passed through Paris that decade were looking for him<\/strong> to record with them. During the Occupation, he remained in France and recorded <em>Clouds<\/em> in 1940, which became a standard. In 1946, he crossed the Atlantic to play with <strong>Duke Ellington<\/strong> The meeting was lukewarm, Ellington wasn't sure what to make of him, and Django left a little disappointed.<\/p>\n<h3>How Django came to Samois<\/h3>\n<p>In 1951, he bought <strong>a house in rue du Bas-Samois<\/strong>, in Samois-sur-Seine, just north of Fontainebleau. He is forty-one years old, has a son, Babik, born in 1944, and the desire <strong>to relax for a while<\/strong>. He settled on the banks of the Seine and was a regular at the inn <em>Chez Fernand<\/em> which he uses as his base, and where he leads a lifestyle one rarely associates with guitar virtuosos.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fyblog-callout fyblog-callout--note\"><strong>Django in Samois: the daily life of a legend.<\/strong> He plays billiards at the Billard Club Samoisien. He paints in gouache. He goes angling on the Seine. He continues to play a great deal, this time with a group of young French boppers (Pierre Michelot, Martial Solal, Roger Gu\u00e9rin), whom he guides towards his own harmonic territory. <strong>The inventor of gypsy jazz<\/strong> spends his twilight years fishing for roach and tidying away the billiard balls. Perhaps that is what makes the bond between Samois and Django so special: <em>It\u2019s a neighbourhood connection, not a museum connection<\/em>.<\/div>\n<p>He lives in Samois <strong>just two years old<\/strong>. On 16 May 1953, after a long walk in the sun, he sat down on the terrace at Chez Fernand to catch his breath. There, he suffered a brain haemorrhage and died at Fontainebleau Hospital. <strong>He is forty-three years old.<\/strong> His last recording had been made barely five weeks earlier, and it was his first session with a pianist, Martial Solal, who recalls it with great emotion.<\/p>\n<p>He is buried at <strong>Plot V of the Samois-sur-Seine communal cemetery<\/strong>. His wife Sophie joined him there in 1971, his son Babik in 2001, and his brother Joseph \u2013 known as Nin-Nin \u2013 too. The grave has become, without a plan, without any signage, and without any cultural funding, <strong>one of the most authentic pilgrimage sites in European music<\/strong>. Manouche guitarists come from the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the United States, and set down their instruments for an impromptu jam session at the grave. It is this <strong>pilgrimage movement<\/strong>, It's a family-friendly, community-based, low-key event that will eventually become a festival.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"samois\">Samois, the \u2018Island of the Cradle\u2019, where it all begins<\/h2>\n<p>The first public tribute to Django takes place <strong>19 May 1968 in Samois<\/strong>, on the fifteenth anniversary of his death. The newspaper <em>Le Monde<\/em> The 21 May edition is simply headlined \u00abDjango\u2019s memory celebrated in Samois\u00bb. The event takes place on <strong>Berceau Island<\/strong>, a narrow strip of land in the middle of the Seine, which can be reached via a simple footbridge from the village. At the time, the journalist covering the story spoke of <strong>just a simple evening with friends<\/strong>. For an event that is set to go global, that\u2019s not a bad start.<\/p>\n<p>The evening was repeated from time to time, with no fixed frequency, in 1973 and 1978. The <strong>Friends of Samois<\/strong>, a local association, are organising increasingly large gatherings: gypsy caravans are beginning to arrive every summer to <strong>camping on the banks, playing at night, talking guitar, passing on the pump to their children<\/strong>. The festival doesn\u2019t officially exist yet, but it\u2019s already there, in its infancy, on the island.<\/p>\n<p>It was in 1983 that the project began to take shape. A group of friends and enthusiasts, centred around <strong>Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Robinet<\/strong>, a former television presenter and mayor of Samois-sur-Seine, and <strong>Maurice Cullaz<\/strong>, president of the Jazz Academy, filed the articles of association for the Django Reinhardt Festival Association. The official registration is dated 22 July 1983, with its registered office at the town hall, Place de la R\u00e9publique. The first annual festival took place the following summer.<\/p>\n<p>A columnist of the time wrote: \u00ab <em>It was so rustic, so untidy, but so compelling and charming!<\/em> \u00bb. The programme is put together with bits and pieces, <strong>the scene is set on the grass<\/strong>, the sound engineers huddle over their mixing desks when it rains, and nobody really knows how many people are going to turn up. The festival\u2019s official website preserves this memory of\u2019<strong>debonair and assumed amateurism<\/strong>. The format quickly found an audience. One journalist described the event as <strong>\u00absmallest of the big festivals\u00bb<\/strong>. The phrase has become synonymous with the festival and, because it was simply too lovely not to be, has eventually become its official motto.<\/p>\n<h3>Three decades on \u00cele du Berceau<\/h3>\n<p>From 1983 to 2015, the festival was held on the island. It was during this period that its legend was forged. The format evolved, expanding from one day to three days, and then to <strong>five days from 2010<\/strong>, but DNA doesn\u2019t change: <strong>an official stage<\/strong>, where the big names in international jazz take to the stage, and all around \u2013 in the campsites, along the paths, right down to the banks of the Seine, <strong>jam sessions that never end<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On stage : <strong>St\u00e9phane Grappelli<\/strong> (featured from the very first editions, presented by Claude Nougaro), Babik Reinhardt was a regular fixture until his death in 2001, <strong>Stochelo Rosenberg and Bir\u00e9li Lagr\u00e8ne<\/strong> who are becoming regulars, Tchavolo and Dorado Schmitt, Angelo Debarre, the Boulou brothers and Elios Ferr\u00e9, Christian Escoud\u00e9. On the American side : <strong>Chet Baker, Barney Kessel, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia<\/strong>. And some more rare but memorable appearances: Toots Thielemans, Didier Lockwood, Sanseverino, Thomas Dutronc.<\/p>\n<p>Off stage, at the campsites, it\u2019s <strong>the world Mecca of Gypsy jazz<\/strong>. Whole families arrive in caravans from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain and the United States. <strong>Children learn to pump at six<\/strong> watching the older generation. Friendships are formed that last a lifetime. No one sleeps. It is this sense of community, rather than the headliners, that has earned the festival its international reputation.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"demenagement\">Flooding, safety, moving house<\/h2>\n<p>The end of the island came without us really seeing it coming, for both practical reasons and reasons to do with the times.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fyblog-callout fyblog-callout--note\"><strong>June 2016: the Seine floods the island.<\/strong> A historic flood completely submerged the \u00cele du Berceau, just two weeks before the opening of the 37th edition. The team had fifteen days to find a solution. They found one: the Parc du Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau, owned by the Centre des monuments nationaux, opened the Prairie du Bois d\u2019Hyver as an alternative venue. The festival went ahead, amidst a sense of urgency and improvisation, <strong>and it takes place well<\/strong>. At the time, no one realises that it is in fact <em>The end of the Samoisian adventure<\/em>.<\/div>\n<p>The following year, in January 2017, the decision was made official: <strong>the festival is leaving the island for good<\/strong> and settled in Fontainebleau. There were many reasons for this. The flood had shown <strong>the vulnerability of a site surrounded by the River Seine<\/strong>, access to which is via a footbridge. The security situation following the attacks requires compliance with Vigipirate standards <strong>that an island cannot hold<\/strong>. And the logistics of the festival, which have now grown to accommodate tens of thousands of people, no longer fit within the island\u2019s small-scale framework.<\/p>\n<p>The festival's artistic director, <strong>S\u00e9bastien Vidal<\/strong>, who has been at the helm since 2006 and is also director of TSF Jazz and the Duc des Lombards, recounts those days. <strong>with a candour that is worth noting<\/strong> : \u00ab <em>Leaving \u00cele du Berceau, which had been our home since 1968, and leaving behind that artisanal atmosphere, was hard. Everyone feels nostalgic about it.<\/em> \u00bb<\/p>\n<p>The Facebook page of <em>Samois\u2019OFF<\/em>, a free parallel programme that brought the village to life during the festival, published in 2017 <strong>a brief and sad message<\/strong> : \u00abSamois\u2019OFF 2017 is over, and so is the festival. With the festival\u2019s conclusion\u2026\u00bb There have been no major controversies in the press, nor any open conflict between Samois Town Council and the association, but one senses that a certain era is coming to an end.<\/p>\n<p>However \u2013 and this is an important point \u2013, <strong>The festival has never severed ties with Samois<\/strong>. The festival\u2019s official programme page retains the title \u00abSAMOIS\u00bb. An opening day in Samois, at Place de la R\u00e9publique, will continue to be held from 2018 to 2024. And as for the memory of Django, <strong>obviously remains at the cemetery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"fontainebleau\">The festival in Fontainebleau today<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1.jpg\" alt=\"Spectator in the grass under the trees at the Django Reinhardt Festival in Fontainebleau\" class=\"fyblog-img-wrap-right wp-image-11326\" width=\"380\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-12x12.jpg 12w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-prairie-bois-hyver-fontainebleau-1-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/>Since 2017, the festival has found its new home in the <strong>Bois d\u2019Hyver Meadow<\/strong>, in the grounds of the <a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/fontainebleau-castle\/\">Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau<\/a>, Avenue des Cascades. You enter through a discreet gate opening onto <strong>a vast lawn bordered by forest<\/strong>. Two scenes: the <strong>Django stage<\/strong>, and the <strong>Luthiers' stage<\/strong>, a more intimate event, nestled in the heart of a village home to around twenty instrument makers who had come for four days.<\/p>\n<p>La <strong>fiftieth edition, in 2018<\/strong>, heralded the dawn of a new era in grand style, with <strong>George Benson, Marcus Miller, Bir\u00e9li Lagr\u00e8ne, Snarky Puppy, Gary Clark Jr.<\/strong>. The fortieth sequential edition, in 2019, featured Parov Stelar, Ibrahim Maalouf, Thomas Dutronc and Les Esprits Manouches, Tom Misch. Then came <strong>the two COVID years<\/strong> which meant the festival could not take place in 2020 and 2021, although, incidentally, no official cancellation announcement has been issued for 2021 (the jump in numbering \u2013 from the 40th edition in 2019 to the 42nd edition in 2022 \u2013 indirectly confirms this).<\/p>\n<p>Since the return of 2022, the festival has been back on track. <strong>a comfortable cruising speed<\/strong> and a line-up that's sure to please the curious music lover. <strong>Jamie Cullum, Ibrahim Maalouf, Stochelo Rosenberg, Melody Gardot<\/strong> in 2022. <strong>Gregory Porter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, GoGo Penguin, Avishai Cohen, Fatoumata Diawara<\/strong> in 2023, with <strong>around twenty thousand spectators<\/strong> over the four days. <strong>Melody Gardot, Black Pumas, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Jalen Ngonda, Angelo Debarre<\/strong> in 2024, seventeen thousand spectators. <strong>Marcus Miller, C\u00e9cile McLorin Salvant, Chucho Vald\u00e9s, Salif Keita, Kokoroko, AY\u1ecc<\/strong> in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge of programming has become clearer over the years. <strong>The Django stage doesn't just play gypsy jazz.<\/strong> It brings together, under the name of Django, everything in today\u2019s music that still holds true <strong>crossover, crossbreeding, swing in the broadest sense of the term<\/strong>. You can hear soul, funk, North American jazz, world music, Brazilian vocals and Israeli folk. And in the middle of this vast panorama, <strong>the Luthiers stage continues to carry the historic heart of Gypsy music<\/strong>, featuring the direct heirs, the workshops, the young guitarists competing in the Tremplin des Luthiers competition, and demonstrations by instrument makers.<\/p>\n<h3>Audience profile<\/h3>\n<p>The festival was a success <strong>that rare thing<\/strong> : it is aimed at both <strong>to the historic gypsy audience<\/strong>, who camp or lodge nearby and spend three days on site, <strong>to the curious jazz public<\/strong>, who comes for C\u00e9cile McLorin Salvant or Avishai Cohen without knowing much about Django, and <strong>to the local public<\/strong>, who finds out about the event because he lives a ten-minute walk away. It\u2019s this mix of people that creates the atmosphere at La Prairie: you come across <strong>generations, languages, listening styles<\/strong>, all on the same pitch.<\/p>\n<p>The organisation is run by the Django Reinhardt Festival Association, which has its headquarters in <strong>stayed in Samois-sur-Seine<\/strong> (rue Victor Chevin). Jean-Pierre Guyard is publishing director, S\u00e9bastien Vidal is programming director. <strong>for twenty years this year<\/strong>. Institutional support comes mainly from the R\u00e9gion \u00cele-de-France, the D\u00e9partement de Seine-et-Marne, the Ville de Fontainebleau, SACEM and private partners.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"manouche-monde\">The festival in the Gypsy world<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1.jpg\" alt=\"Golden tenor saxophone at the Django Reinhardt Festival, jazz in Fontainebleau\" class=\"fyblog-img-wrap-left wp-image-11328\" width=\"380\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-12x12.jpg 12w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-saxophone-jazz-fontainebleau-1-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/>To understand why this festival <strong>is not a jazz festival like any other<\/strong>, You have to step aside and look at the world map of gypsy jazz.<\/p>\n<p>There are roughly four or five major international events a year for this very specific musical community. <strong>DjangoFest Northwest<\/strong>, in Langley, Washington State, is North America\u2019s premier event, held in the autumn in a small island town which, incidentally, is reminiscent of Samois. <strong>Django \u00e0 la Chope<\/strong>, in Brussels, ran from mid-May until it was discontinued in 2022. Smaller gatherings take place in the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Italy and even Australia.<\/p>\n<p>But none of these festivals have what Fontainebleau has: <strong>the legitimacy of the place<\/strong>. Django lived in Samois, he died there, he is buried there, and his son and brother are buried with him. <strong>Although the festival has been moved to Fontainebleau, it still maintains this physical link with the place where the genre\u2019s inventor passed away.<\/strong> It is this geographical legitimacy that leads Manouche families from Amsterdam, Munich and Budapest to regard Fontainebleau as <strong>a must at least once in their musical lives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The other distinctive feature is the <strong>transmission size<\/strong>. The festival has never been merely a showcase. The legendary jam sessions in Samois used to fulfil that role. In Fontainebleau, that role is now played by <strong>the Luthiers stage<\/strong>, by the <strong>Tremplin des Luthiers<\/strong> (a competition reserved for young artists), by the <strong>masterclasses<\/strong> by figures such as David Reinhardt, Django\u2019s grandson and a contemporary guitarist, and through the educational workshops organised in conjunction with music schools. This is important: <strong>Gypsy jazz is one of the few musical genres that is still passed on almost exclusively by ear<\/strong>, from generation to generation. Without events like Fontainebleau, this chain would be weakened.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"memoire\">Memory, pilgrimage, and the village where everything remains<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1.jpg\" alt=\"Gypsy guitar placed against a stele, a tribute to the jazz pilgrimage in Samois\" class=\"fyblog-img-wrap-left wp-image-11325\" width=\"380\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-12x12.jpg 12w, https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/festival-django-reinhardt-guitare-stele-pelerinage-1-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/>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, <strong>make a diversion to Samois-sur-Seine<\/strong>. It\u2019s a ten-minute drive from Fontainebleau, and it\u2019s not difficult to get there by public transport either.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fyblog-callout fyblog-callout--note\"><strong>Django\u2019s Grave: A Guide.<\/strong> At the municipal cemetery in Samois-sur-Seine, Plot V. It\u2019s nothing to write home about. <em>A stone, the name, the dates.<\/em> Sophie his wife, Joseph his brother, Babik his son, who are also there. Sometimes guitars left by visitors, sometimes flowers, sometimes nothing. On 16 May, the anniversary of his death, there are often <strong>a few musicians playing around, with no official organisation<\/strong>, because that\u2019s how it\u2019s been since 1953 and that\u2019s how it will continue.<\/div>\n<p>In the village, you will find the <strong>Foyer Django Reinhardt<\/strong>, At 2 rue Gambetta, a former bakery has been taken over by the local authority and is used as a <strong>screening and exhibition room<\/strong>. During the festival week, there is a retrospective photography exhibition on the Samois editions. The rest of the year, the venue serves as a library and a venue for events.<\/p>\n<p>La <strong>Django's house<\/strong>, on Rue du Bas-Samois, still exists. Its current legal status is not publicly documented, and <strong>It\u2019s best not to invite yourself along for no reason<\/strong>. Let\u2019s just say you\u2019ll pass it on your way up to the inn, and you\u2019ll know when you see it. As for <em>Chez Fernand<\/em>, the inn where Django used to entertain, play, paint and where he collapsed, has changed hands several times since 1953. But <strong>The banks of the Seine, however, haven\u2019t really changed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>For older Samois editions, the <a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/fontainebleau-municipal-library\/\">M\u00e9diath\u00e8que Municipale de Fontainebleau<\/a> retains Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Robinet\u2019s reference work, <em>50 years of the Django Reinhardt Festival: 1968-2018<\/em>, published to mark the company's fiftieth anniversary. <strong>If you want to delve properly into the archives, this is where you should start.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pratique\">Practical information about the festival<\/h2>\n<p>This year\u2019s event is still going ahead <strong>end of June<\/strong>, usually during the last week. Four days, from Thursday to Sunday, on the Prairie du Bois d\u2019Hyver, within the grounds of the <a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/fontainebleau-castle\/\">Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau<\/a>, avenue des Cascades. The site is accessible <strong>20 minutes on foot from Fontainebleau-Avon station<\/strong>, through the city centre.<\/p>\n<h3>Tickets<\/h3>\n<p>There are generally three ticket formats. <strong>Four-day pass<\/strong>, which starts at around 135 euros and gives access to both stages for the entire duration. <strong>The two-day pass<\/strong>, At around 70 euros, for those who want to make a weekend of it without spending the whole week. <strong>Day pass<\/strong>, ranging from 40 to 52 euros depending on the day and the headliners. Admission is free for children under thirteen. The ticket office usually opens <strong>at the start of the year<\/strong>, and four-day passes <strong>leave quickly<\/strong> when the poster is in high demand.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fyblog-callout fyblog-callout--astuce\"><strong>Where to book your tickets.<\/strong> The simplest: the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.festivaldjangoreinhardt.com\/billetterie\/\" rel=\"noopener\">official festival ticket office<\/a>, on the association\u2019s website. There you will find all the latest information, including any last-minute offers. The festival is also available on <a href=\"https:\/\/tidd.ly\/4ftRsyJ\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\">Fnac Spectacles<\/a> if you already have an account with them. <strong>For headliners in high demand<\/strong> (this year: Asaf Avidan and Cory Wong), book your tickets two days in advance without delay.<\/div>\n<h3>How to get here<\/h3>\n<p>If you\u2019re arriving by train, it\u2019s <strong>Fontainebleau-Avon station<\/strong> from Gare de Lyon, in forty minutes. From the station, the ch\u00e2teau is about a twenty-minute walk along Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, or <strong>three bus stations on line 1<\/strong>. If you\u2019re arriving by car, the nearest car park to the venue is the Mar\u00e9chaux car park, five minutes from the festival entrance.<\/p>\n<h3>Where to sleep<\/h3>\n<p>Four days at the height of the season, <strong>It\u2019s best to start a few weeks in advance<\/strong> Fontainebleau is saturated at the end of June between the festival, the gardens of the Ch\u00e2teau and the climbing weekends. Two great Fontainebleau addresses just a few minutes' walk from the Ch\u00e2teau:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/hotel-de-cavoye\/\">H\u00f4tel de Cavoye<\/a><\/strong> - in a four-star <em>17th\u1d49 century town house<\/em> in the heart of the historic centre. Beautifully decorated, <em>spirit private residence<\/em>, ten minutes' walk from the festival site.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/hotel-spa-napoleon-fontainebleau\/\">H\u00f4tel &amp; Spa Napol\u00e9on Fontainebleau<\/a><\/strong> - A historic address on the main axis of the city centre, <strong>spa and indoor pool<\/strong> welcome after a late night of concerts. The in-house restaurant, <a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/the-napoleonic-bistro-dial-in-fontainebleau\/\">Le Cadran<\/a>, This is also an option for dining in the immediate vicinity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Where to eat between two stages<\/h3>\n<p>The festival has its own range of food trucks and stalls on site, but <strong>many festival-goers prefer to enjoy the city centre<\/strong> The Ch\u00e2teau is just ten minutes from Rue Grande. Some good values:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/inalis-neobistrot-fountainbleau\/\">Inalis - N\u00e9obistrot Fontainebleau<\/a><\/strong>, <em>5 rue Montebello<\/em>, just a stone's throw from the Ch\u00e2teau. <strong>Creative neo-bistro<\/strong>, one of the trendiest restaurants in the city centre.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/the-napoleonic-bistro-dial-in-fontainebleau\/\">Le Cadran - Napoleonic bistro<\/a><\/strong>, bistro atmosphere <em>warm Napoleonic d\u00e9cor<\/em>, perfect for a no-fuss lunch.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/gina\/\">Restaurant Gina<\/a><\/strong>, attached to the\u2019<a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/hotel-de-cavoye\/\">H\u00f4tel de Cavoye<\/a>. Tidy kitchen <em>in the elegant setting of a private mansion<\/em>, perfect for an evening meal between two days at the festival.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/loree-des-sablons\/\">The Edge of the Sands<\/a><\/strong> - for lunch <em>away from the hustle and bustle of the festival<\/em>, on the edge of town and the forest. The perfect spot to catch your breath between performances.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/frederic-cassel-salon-de-the\/\">Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Cassel - Tearoom<\/a>, for <em>a sweet break<\/em> between two concerts: top-class pastries by chef Cassel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For a coffee or glass of wine between sets, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/lhappy-curious\/\">The Happy Curious<\/a><\/strong> at <em>33 place Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte<\/em> is the ideal address: <strong>cosy wine caf\u00e9-bar<\/strong>, opposite the Carrousel, just a few minutes from the Ch\u00e2teau. Open early in the morning and late in the evening.<\/p>\n<p>And if you just want <em>eating on the go without compromising on quality<\/em> between two scenes, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/places\/the-loop\/\">The LOOP<\/a><\/strong> is the best street food address in the city centre: <strong>fresh bagels<\/strong> and coffee shops, to eat in or take away.<\/p>\n<h3>And if it rains on a Saturday<\/h3>\n<p>Most of the festival is held <strong>under tents and marquees<\/strong>, so a June shower won\u2019t put a spanner in the works. But if you\u2019re planning a day out on a Thursday or Sunday and the weather\u2019s playing up, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/what-to-do-fontainebleau-rain\/\">Plan your day with our quick guide to things to do in Fontainebleau when it\u2019s raining<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"conclusion\">To conclude, briefly<\/h2>\n<p>The Django Reinhardt Festival <strong>survived many things<\/strong> A founder who died at the age of forty-three and whose memory had to be honoured without caricaturing him, <strong>a drowning island<\/strong>, a move that could have shattered the magic, two years without a new edition, changes in era and line-up. It\u2019s still going strong, at the end of July<\/p>\n<p class=\"fyblog-footnote\"><em>Some of the establishments mentioned in this article are among the partners supporting Fontyblog.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Festival Django Reinhardt \u00e0 Fontainebleau L&#8217;histoire, le lieu, l&#8217;esprit. Tout ce qu&#8217;il faut savoir avant d&#8217;y aller, et tout ce qui rend la chose si particuli\u00e8re. \u00c9dition 2026 : du 25 au 28 juin 2026, Prairie du Bois d&#8217;Hyver, Parc du Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau. \u00c0 l&#8217;affiche : Asaf Avidan, Cory Wong, MEUTE, Thee Sacred Souls, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":11316,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Festival Django Reinhardt \u00e0 Fontainebleau : tout savoir | Fontyblog","_seopress_titles_desc":"L'histoire du Festival Django Reinhardt : de Samois 1968 \u00e0 Fontainebleau aujourd'hui, le grand rendez-vous mondial du jazz manouche fin juin.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jet_sm_ready_style":"","_jet_sm_style":"","_jet_sm_controls_values":"","_jet_sm_fonts_collection":"","_jet_sm_fonts_links":"","iawp_total_views":180,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11315","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_hostinger_reach_plugin_has_subscription_block":false,"_hostinger_reach_plugin_is_elementor":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11315"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11610,"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11315\/revisions\/11610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontyblog.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}