Bayonne Festivals

The Bayonne 2020 Festival will take place from July 29 to August 2, 2020..
The Bayonne Festivals (Baionako Festak in Basque, Las Hèstas de Baiona in Occitan), are a period of celebration in the city of Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) which begins on the Wednesday preceding the first weekend in August ( normally the first Wednesday in August but the start has been advanced for a few years due to an overcrowding which has become too large) and ends on the following Sunday (in the event of a weekend straddling the two months, they are ‘will always complete the first Sunday in August). In 2004, these festivals gathered between 1.3 and 1.5 million visitors, making these festivals the most important in France. The formal dress is white, accompanied by a scarf and a red belt (cinta, zinta or faja). This non-traditional outfit from the region actually comes from the Basque province of Navarre in Spain. The festive practice of the Bayonne festivals is registered in the Inventory of French intangible cultural heritage.