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Afest noz (sometimes hyphenated asfest-noz; "night festival" inBreton) is aBreton traditional festival, with dancing in groups and live musicians playing acoustic instruments.
Although easy to write off thefest nozou andfêtes folkloriques as modern inventions, most of the traditional dances of thefest noz are ancient, some dating back to theMiddle Ages, providing a way for the community to grasp hold of its past and relish a deep sense of being with ancestors and with place.[1]
The plural in Breton isfestoù noz, butthe Goadec Sisters (a family of traditional singers) used to sayfestnozoù, and the French may also say inFrenchdes fest-noz.
On 5 December 2012 thefest noz was added byUNESCO to theRepresentative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[2]
In the past, the dances were sometimes used to trample the ground to make a firm earth floor in a house or a solid surface for farm work (the "aire neuve" dances), to which people from the neighbourhood were invited, which explains the presence of stamping movements in some of the dances. For a long time the church banned "kof-ha-kof" (stomach-to-stomach) dances, meaning dancing in pairs. These festivals were a chance for young people to meet and size each other up, on a social level, by their clothes, and to see how quickly they got tired, since dances sometimes continued for a long time and involved complex and swift steps that required effort and skill.
These days,festoù noz are still very popular, mixing the different generations. Most of the villages have afest noz at least once a year, organised by the sports clubs, the school, etc. It is a way to express their culture and identity, and to share common values with friends of a night. As in many group folk dances, one talks of sometimes reaching a trance state because of repetitive music, and physical exertion. During the summer and tourist season, in many ways, taking part in afest noz is for many people like an alternative way of going to a night club.
There are hundreds of traditional dances, of which the most well-known aregavottes,an dro,'hanter dro,plinn, and Scottish. During thefest noz, most dances are practised in a chain or in a circle (everyone holds hands), but there are also dances in pairs and "choreographed" dances, meaning dances enriched with precise artistic elements (sequences, figures, etc.).
The major study on Breton dancing is "La tradition populaire de danse en Basse-Bretagne", book written from his thesis dissertation, byJean-Michel Guilcher (new edition by Coop-Breizh, Chasse-Marée/Armen, 1995).
There are principally two types of music at these festivals: music sunga cappella (kan ha diskan), accompanied with music or purely instrumental. Before the invention of microphones and amplified instruments, common instruments included thetalabard (a sort of oboe or shawm) and theBreton bagpipes (binioù kozh), due to their high volume. Also popular was the diatonicaccordion, theclarinet, and occasionally theviolin and thehurdy-gurdy. After theSecond World War, theScottish bagpipes (binioù bras) also became common in Brittany thanks tobagadoù (pipe bands) and thus often replaced thebinioù-kozh. The basic clarinet (treujenn-gaol, 'cabbage core' in Breton) had all but disappeared but has regained popularity over the past few years.
Other than the traditional instruments, there are nowadays groups with many different styles of music ranging from rock,jazz, to punk and also mixes with styles from other countries. String instruments (the violin, the double-bass, the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar, the bass guitar) and North African percussion instruments have long since been adopted. To varying degrees, somefest noz groups also use electronic keyboards and synthesisers (Strobinell, Sonerien Du, Les Baragouineurs, Plantec, etc.). Brass instruments are becoming increasingly commonplace, often bringing with them sounds approaching those of Oriental music.
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Just after the revival of the 1970s, the standard was to alternate a couple of singers (a cappella orkan a diskan) and a couple of musicians (biniou andtalabard generally). It was common to see the holding of "free stages". Currently, couples of singers (kanerien) and couples of musicians (sonerien) play alternately with a band. Bands play more instrumental music and often the practice of the dance is different from the two other ways to conduct the dancers.
Between every "suite" (three dances), there are short breaks where dancers socialise by chatting to other dancers or visiting the traditional buffet of local dishes likecrêpes,galettes-saucisses,far Breton, andkouign-amann, with localcider, beer, andchouchenn, a mead-like drink made from fermented honey.
