The Fourvière Nights

The Fourvière Nights must first and foremost be a popular festival that inspires dreams. It's a celebration of openness, encounters and shared experience.

The full 2025 festival programme

Find out all about the 2025 programme and book your tickets with the Nuits de Fourvière box office (opening at noon on 19 March 2025!).

The Fourvière Nights 2025 Times 

The Fourvière Nights is a series of great moments to share :

• Les Samedis des Nuits bring festive themes to the site of the Theatres and transform the Odeon into a convivial terrace. 7 Saturdays to rethink hospitality and openness. Live, food and DJ sets! In partnership with Lyon Street Food Festival 
• Les Petites Nuits is a program to share with the whole family, with shows specially designed for the very young, at the crossroads of music, dance, circus and theater. 

Le Village magique, the place where anything is possible! Set up in the Lycée Public Saint-Just, adjacent to the Théâtres de Fourvière, from July 4 to 7 and again from July 9 to 12, this is where you can dream, experiment and cogitate, before or after your chosen show. Spread over 2 weeks, the program introduces 

Festival highlights

Though the festival is deeply attached to the ancient Fourvière site, it aims to expand. Whether geographically by hosting festival-goers on other sites, culturally by offering visitors the opportunity to get to know artists from all over the world, or by adding further disciplines, the festival opens minds and encourages exploration.

Fourvière Nights “off” shows are an institution. Looking to expand the programme off the ancient site to make it ever more accessible, the festival has partnerships with 12 cultural venues: Transbordeur, Theater and Croix-Rousse square, Lugdunum Museum and Roman Theaters, Fourvière Hôtel, ENSATT, Lycée Saint-Just, Halle Tony Garnier, Maison du Peuple de Vénissieux, Mercure Hotel Lyon Centre Lumière, Célestins Théâtre de Lyon and Théâtre National Populaire.

Discounted admission with the Lyon City Card

In partnership with The Fourvière Nights, the Lyon City Card gives you discounted tickets for a dozen shows. Make the most of the offer to (re)discover the city before making your way to the site of the ancient theatres to support the artists on stage.

Accessible shows

Because The Fourvière Nights aims to be a cultural gathering for all, the festival programme also includes accessible activities and shows. Various services will be available to enable all festival-goers to enjoy the event, including a relaxation session for people with mental disabilities, audio-descriptions and whisperers to describe visual performances, a hearing loop and tactile indicators.
If you have a disability, buy your tickets at least 15 days in advance if possible, providing information about your disability. To book tours and workshops, or for further information, please contact Les Nuits de Fourvière at [email protected] or phone the ticket office on +33(0)4 72 32 00 00

Previous editions

Always striving to be eclectic, Lyon’s festival The Fourvière Nights has welcomed a variety of leading artists over the years, such as Philippe Decouflé, Isabelle Adjani, Michel Polnareff, Kassav', The Black Keys and Christine and the Queens... While the festival has always been centred on the history-filled site of the ancient theatres, there has been a real desire to bring artists and spectators down from the hill of Fourvière. With this in mind, the “off-site” programme has invited audiences to various venues. 

The history of Nuits de Fourvière

On 29 June 1946 at 5 p.m., French President Edouard Herriot, Mayor of Lyon, gave a historic conference at the Grand Roman Theatre to open the event. The first show put on was a play from the ancient repertoire picked to pay tribute to the venue: Aeschylus’s “The Persians”. Though Nîmes and Orange had had their festivals for some time, Lyon finally took the plunge, putting on major outdoor cultural events on a historic site.

But it wasn’t yet known as a festival. Lyon residents attended the “Soirées de Fourvière”, then the Festival de Lyon-Charbonnières for the first time in June 1949. 
Over eleven seasons, endless concerts and recitals, baroque and romantic operas, ancient and classical tragedies, ballets and comedies were organised in the two Roman theatres, churches, museum courtyards, on the cathedral square, and in the salons and gardens of Lyon-Charbonnières casino... (source Fourvière une histoire)

In 1960, it became the “Festival de Lyon” but its success varied from year to year and the programme was patchy. The festival was still looking for an identity.
Then ultimately came the ‘90s and the 49th year of the festival from 5 to 28 July 1994. This was the first “Nuit de Fourvière” as we know it. The programme featured 4 nights of blues, a Bob Dylanrecital, the group IAM, Patricia Kaas, etc. Nuit de Fourvière festival is more than ever aiming to be eclectic and international.