Festivals

In Lisula and the Balagne region, culture is a year-round experience. In villages and cultural centres alike, it draws on the island’s traditions whilst embracing contemporary influences, both local and from further afield. Music, theatre, cinema, literature and heritage come together to tell the story of a region that passes on its heritage, encourages creativity and fosters connections.

Places where culture comes to life

In Balagne and Lisula, culture isn’t confined to exhibition halls or museum entrances. It can be discovered in a former sacristy in Curbara – Corbara, beneath the vaulted ceiling of the earthen auditorium in Pigna, at the cinema in L’Isula – L’Ile-Rousse, or in a wooden theatre with cubic lines in Pioggiula – Pioggiola. Here, cultural venues are on a human scale, inviting you to take your time – to look, listen or chat.

Here, you can explore the collections of religious artefacts at theCurbaraTreasury Museum, listen to a performance by artists at the end of their residency at the Voce National Centre for Musical Creation, leaf through a book at Artelibri, attend a screening at Lisula CineMusica or bump into artists in residence at L’ARIA. So many opportunities to approach culture not as something to be merely contemplated, but as an experience to be shared.

When villages turn into a festival

When summer arrives, the villages become meeting places for artists, locals and visitors. The voices and sounds of Festivoce – the festival of voices – echo off the stone walls of the village houses, creating a dialogue between Corsican polyphonic singing and world music. In Lama, the Film Festival’s screenings transform the village into an open-air cinema. In the Ghjunsani, the International Theatre Festival sets up its stages in the villages, in the shade of an oak tree, inviting people to experience theatre where they least expect it.

You come for a moment’s entertainment and leave with so much more: the memory of an evening shared with others, a conversation with an artist, or an emotion felt in a place you would never have discovered otherwise.

Highlights of Lisula and the Balagne region