Fiesta

Around a unifying theme, “Party,” this new edition offers opportunities to create new forms of gatherings, allowing people to escape the growing individualization of society. Parades, celebrations, banquets, balls, and carnivals are all honored.

Transformations in public spaces, exhibitions, performances, theater, dance, concerts, unique events, participatory projects, literary encounters, debates, and cinema compose a varied program, allowing visitors of all ages to share emotions, whether as spectators or active participants in the projects.

Why Fiesta today?

While it may seem provocative to celebrate in a world filled with alarms (war, climate crisis…), partying is precisely a collective effervescence that acts as an antidote to the anxiety or anger generated by today’s world.

A “Fiesta” against the “Furia” of the world.

After years of isolation and confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrations bring people together and reinvent the joy of community. Parties renew and strengthen social bonds. They are not forgetful of global challenges but rather conscious of ecological stakes and the current context.

Manifesting life in all its forms, expressing bodies and beings in their full diversity: celebrations are also spaces for creation and, above all, freedom. It’s worth noting that oppressive regimes often ban festivities, as they represent the essence of democracy.

Celebrations: A tradition of the North

The term “Fiesta” was chosen, evoking Spain and the southern parts of Europe or Latin America, to emphasize how welcoming the North is, attentive to the South. It reflects that parties are not a closed assertion of territory or identity but an opening to the world.

Fiesta: Three vowels and three consonants.

Celebrations: A unifying tool

As with its previous thematic seasons, lille3000 unites major venues, museums, the opera house, orchestras, conservatories, music schools, theaters, choreographic centers, performance halls, and artistic collectives around this new theme. Lille3000 collaborates with neighborhoods in Lille, municipalities in the European Metropolis of Lille, and the Hauts-de-France region to create, in close cooperation, a program of joyful, festive, and unifying events that highlight associations, artists, collectives, and residents.

These large-scale events aim to make artistic proposals accessible to as many people as possible, reaching audiences or populations who might feel distant from conventional cultural spaces.

Lille3000 designs its events as tools for sharing culture, not only by bringing residents closer to artistic creation in the most convivial way but by involving them in a process of appropriation and creation while maintaining the excellence of artistic proposals.

Celebrations: A source of inspiration

« The forms of art originate from celebrations »

Georges Bataille

One of the strengths of lille3000’s thematic editions is providing a cross-sectional interpretation focused on a theme. The 2025 edition is particularly fertile in this regard, mobilizing many artists, often rarely showcased in France, who have approached “Fiesta” in their own way.

It’s unsurprising to see the resonance of this theme in the Iberian Peninsula, Brazil (lille3000 actively participates in the France-Brazil cross-season starting in April 2025), as well as in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The 2025 edition revolves around major events:

• The opening parade in Lille on Saturday, April 26, 2025
• Major exhibitions
• Urban art installations
• Participatory projects

The summer success of Utopia encourages maintaining these spring-summer dates, asserting Lille, the European Metropolis of Lille, and the Hauts-de-France region as essential tourist destinations. At the same time, it allows the opportunity to address residents who stay in the area during the summer.

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When Lille became the European Capital of Culture in 2004, it profoundly changed the image of the city and the region. That exceptional year left us with powerful images such as the Opening Celebration and its 750,000 visitors, Parallel Worlds, or countless urban transformations, as well as lasting contributions like our Folie Houses.

Building on remarkable creative energy and extraordinary popular enthusiasm, we continued this journey through lille3000 to explore cultures and challenges of our world while projecting toward contemporary creation, innovation, and the future.

Highlights of previous editions include:

• 2006: The discovery of India with Bombaysers de Lille.
• 2009: Europe at the heart of the celebration with Europe XXL.
• 2012: The intriguing programming of Fantastic.
• 2015: Renaissance explored transformations of the 21st century.
• 2019: Eldorado invited us to dream of the future with Mexico as a guest of honor.
• 2022: Utopia, focusing on Nature and humanity’s relationship with the environment.

Additionally, lille3000 has presented major contemporary art exhibitions at the exceptional venue, Tripostal, partnering with institutions like the François Pinault Foundation, Saatchi Gallery, and Centre Pompidou.

Recurring themes of lille3000 include visions of the future and avant-garde explorations, exemplified by the Futurotextiles exhibition, which has toured the world since 2006.

With annual events at Gare Saint Sauveur, lille3000 continues to unite communities through dynamic, festive, and inclusive experiences for all ages.