Fest noz

7,000 dancers in Rennes for the Fest Noz Yaouank 2015 (Startijenn on stage)

A fest noz (sometimes hyphenated as fest-noz; "night festival" in Breton) is a Breton traditional festival, with dancing in groups and live musicians playing acoustic instruments.

Although it is all too easy to write off the fest nozou and fêtes folkloriques as modern inventions, most of the traditional dances of the fest noz are ancient, some dating back to the Middle 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 is festoù noz, but the Goadec Sisters (a family of traditional singers) used to say festnozoù, and the French may also say in French des fest-noz.

On 5 December 2012 the fest noz was added by UNESCO to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[2]

  1. ^ Cunliffe, Barry W. (2003). The Celts: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780192804181 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ UNESCO - Intangible Heritage Section. "UNESCO Culture Sector - Intangible Heritage - 2003 Convention :". unesco.org. Archived from the original on 2013-08-26.