The Festival
Grand Bruit – Music of the Landscape and Improvised Territory is an eclectic music festival whose second edition will take place from June 23 to 25, 2023, in Saint-Amant-Roche-Savine.
Grand Bruit is organized by ARFI (Association à la Recherche d’un Folklore Imaginaire). ARFI explores and expands its imaginary world, carrying it into the mountains. Reaching Forez from Lyon or Clermont-Ferrand means crossing altitude changes that amplify the air, creating the echo of a grand bruit—the sound of free music. The altitude provides perspective, bringing together artistic approaches that embrace experimentation, playfulness, and boundless breath.
Propelled by this Grand Bruit, diverse artistic forms meet, collide, enrich one another, and resonate together, feeding the echo.
ARFI’s music is inherently inclusive—it does not exist without ears to hear it, whether young or old, pierced, protruding, or aided by hearing devices. That’s why ARFI values time spent engaging with audiences, listeners, and sound providers who inhabit and resonate within the territory. For a festival to find its place within the local narrative, our presence must begin well in advance. Fortunately, we’ve already had the opportunity to perform in Livradois and Forez. The Ambert Peninsula and the Saint-Amant-Roche-Savine presqu’île already feel like ideal anchor points for a festival built around music, wandering paths, and shared feasts!
The second edition of Grand Bruit will present performances rooted in the local landscape—musical walks, concerts, street performances, and more. For this new adventure, the ARFI team aims to reach new audiences by partnering with other local organizations. The goal is to embed the festival within its territory and reality, uniting efforts to create an event that is increasingly accessible, sustainable, open to nature, and artistically engaging.
Encounters Between Artists and Audiences
Grand Bruit is a festival of music, wandering, and shared meals. It seeks to create moments of connection between audiences, listeners, and the sound providers of the region. To encourage these interactions, we are organizing convivial picnics during our musical walks, celebrating the convergence of artists and the public.
This year, we are also introducing a welcome gathering during the opening night, offering an informal aperitif before the concerts. This moment will foster exchanges between the festival’s key players: volunteers, staff, artists, audiences, suppliers, and partners.
A Historic Site – Livradois-Forez Regional Natural Park
For the second year, Grand Bruit will feature musical hikes through the heart of the Livradois-Forez Regional Natural Park, bringing attention to and celebrating this exceptional natural heritage of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Located in eastern Auvergne, the park spans three departments (Puy-de-Dôme, Haute-Loire, Loire) and encompasses 162 municipalities. A popular tourist destination, it offers numerous hiking trails and is known for its natural valleys and medieval towns, which preserve ancestral craftsmanship—including knife-making in Thiers, cheese-making and papermaking in Ambert, lacework in Arlanc, and Gallo-Roman pottery in Lezoux.
Cultural Activities
In the three weekends leading up to the festival, two improvisation workshops will be held in Saint-Amant-Roche-Savine:
- An open instrumental workshop, welcoming all skill levels and instruments
- A choral singing workshop, open to all ages
These workshops will focus on playing the music of the landscapes we will traverse during our musical walks.
Additionally, we will collaborate with the local primary school’s summer fair on Saturday, June 24, working with children on a sung repertoire that will be performed during that day’s musical promenade.