Rennes (AFP)

"At the end of the road, the joy and the warmth of the Southern Celts": Galicia is the guest of honor at the 49th edition of the Festival Interceltique de Lorient (FIL), which opens Friday for ten days and ten nights party with over 4,500 artists.

The programming promises to be rich and varied for more than 700,000 festival-goers expected along the quays, in the heart of the Breton port: 200 concerts and shows on 12 stages, 12 creations, parades, literary meetings, conferences, sporting events, gastronomic tastings , exhibitions of contemporary art or craft ...

Number of events are free, starting with one of the most popular of the public, the "grand parade of Celtic nations", Sunday morning, for a colorful show that will see some 3,500 musicians and dancers in traditional costumes from different nations Celtic. A parade opened by the renowned bagad of Lann Bihoué, ambassador of the Navy and unique professional bagad.

The Celtic nations are scattered along the Atlantic arc: Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Asturias and Galicia. Not to mention the diasporas, also represented in Lorient: America, Australia or Asia have hosted over the centuries many Celtic communities of Ireland, Brittany or Spain, who took with them languages ​​and cultures of which they keep alive traces.

Certainly, with neighboring Asturias, Galicia is the southern sister of the Celtic galaxy. Located in northwestern Spain, this autonomous region facing the sea is comparable to Britain in many aspects, starting with its population and area: 2,760,000 inhabitants for 29,574 km2.

An iconic city embodies Galicia: its capital, Santiago de Compostela, the focal point of one of Europe's most famous pilgrimages.

- a departure for Saint-Jacques -

The pedestrian paths of this thousand-year-old pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela are enjoying a resurgence and are frequented every year by hundreds of thousands of people. On the occasion of the festival, Lorient will become this year one of the official starting points of a path to Saint-Jacques. The city will be offered by the Galician Ministry of Culture a granite monolith that will be erected in the city center.

But besides the fact of making discover its territory and sharing its gastronomy, to be the guest of the festival also implies for the region honored to make share its culture, as during the Great night of Galicia, on Monday, August 5, where will occur more than 150 Galician artists, including new generations who renew the ancestral repertoire.

Among the concerts expected, the Serbian Goran Bregovic will join with the Orchester symphonique de Bretagne to perform his "three letters of Sarajevo", an ode to peace and living together (Tuesday 6).

The bagad Kemper, the most successful of Britain, will celebrate its 70 years with a creation, "Nerzh" ("strength", "power", in Breton), with the Celtic rock band Red Cardell, about twenty albums on the counter (Friday 9).

Another highlight, the "interceltique night", proposed five nights at the stadium Moustoir, more used to the benefits of football club Lorient. This 2h30 show combines songs, music and dance with more than 500 artists, lights, video projection and digital sequences, all enclosed by a fireworks display.

The "Celtic Electro" will take the stage on Saturday 10 with the Scots "Peatbog Faeries", whose repertoire is also imbued with techno, jazz and African influences, the Breton group "Noon" which combines electronic music with bagpipes, and Galician Mercedes Peon in search of sound.

Finally, "the most Breton of Galicians", as it is often called, Carlos Nuñez, will present a creation with the presence of artist friends, among whom Alan Stivell.

As summed up Lisardo Lombardia, director of the festival and himself Asturian, the FIL, a festive parenthesis of a whole city, "it's an opportunity to dive into the cultures of the world".

© 2019 AFP