Fest-Noz is an annual Breton-style festive gathering in which people gather together to dance and sing and listen to traditional Breton music.
In the Breton cultural movement, a living practice of hundreds of variations of inherited dance repertoire has been preserved, and thousands of tunes have been created. About a thousand Fest-Noz take place every year with a hundred to several thousands of participants participating, and thousands of musicians and singers performing.
There are also thousands of dancers who attend every year. Beyond the dancing itself, the Fest-Noz is characterized by a strong camaraderie among the singers, musicians, and dancers, significant social diversity, and openness that extends to all.
Some of the traditions of the Fest Noz and fêtes folkloriques may seem modern, but most of their traditional dances date back to the Middle Ages. Those traditions provide the community with a way to grasp hold of the past and to feel a deep sense of belonging to their ancestors and to their place.
A ferment of musical experiences has come to characterize Fest-Noz today, which has been spawning a veritable cultural economy. Many meetings between musicians, singers, and dancers come to take place among Brittany and from other cultures.
Moreover, Festival-Noz is also heavily embedded in Brittany's sense of identity and continuity which is why many new residents use it as a means of integration. The term fest-noz is given to a traditional dance festival in Brittany. Most Breton dances are social dances, performed in groups. Also gave young people an opportunity to meet and size each other up by their clothes as well as to see their energy levels since dances can last for a long time and involve complex, fast steps that require effort and skill.
Transmission typically takes place through immersion, observation, and imitation; However, hundreds of devotees have compiled repertoires with traditional bearers and laid the groundwork for new methods of transmission.
Today, many festivals are also held outside Brittany within the diaspora, preserving and spreading the Breton culture outside Breton territory. Festoù Noz is still popular amongst the different generations. Most of the villages host a festival at least once a year, in conjunction with the sports clubs, the schools, etc.
This is a way of expressing their culture and identity as a unique group and sharing common values with friends of the same generation. In many group folk dances, people sometimes enter a trance state because of repeated music and physical exertion. Fest-nozzes are often seen as an alternative to nightclubs during the summer and tourist seasons.
References
(https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/fest-noz-festive-gathering-based-on-the-collective-practice-of-traditional-dances-of-brittany-00707) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fest_Noz)