In art, we live. The 2025 French May Arts Festival takes ‘Vive L’art’ as the theme to celebrate the long-lasting artistic wonders of French culture and heritage, as well as the ever-growing connection and exchange between Hong Kong and France. Succeeding our previous editions and tying in with our mission, the festival offers a myriad of cultural events for everyone, embarking on a sensory journey through sights and sounds.
At the heart of this year’s festival is the feature exhibition The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia—A Conversation, co-presented by M+, in collaboration with Musée national Picasso-Paris (MnPP). An unprecedented cross-cultural and intergenerational dialogue between the European master Pablo Picasso and contemporary Asian artists, the exhibition features more than sixty works from MnPP, and 130 works by Asian and Asian-diasporic artists from the M+ Collections. Seeing Picasso’s legacy in a new light, the exhibition delves into the complex relationships between origin and reception, invention and adaptation, as well as East and West.
Jazzing it up with music and dance, the festival brings in an exciting line-up of collaborations, as celebrated French singer-composer Sarah Lancman teams up with local virtuoso Joyce Cheung for Jazz Female Duo – Paris Rendezvous, while singer-songwriter Joyce Jonathan meets local sensation Jay Fung for the Echoes of the Heart concert; not to mention French-Swiss jazz trumpeter Erik Truffaz’s Rollin’ & Clap! will keep the good vibes rolling. As for classical music, HK Phil takes centre stage with Gautier Capuçon Plays Shostakovich. In dance, with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, West Kowloon Cultural District presents contemporary dance Corps extrêmes, while HK Ballet is set to hit the stage with romantic ballet Giselle. Produced by Alliance Française de Hong Kong, Claire and Anthony’s Souvenirs, which marries dance and shadow theatre, will mesmerise the audience.
To encourage a deeper appreciation, and foster audience engagement in art and culture, the festival covers a wide array of activities in different mediums, including masterclasses for emerging local talents, workshops, screenings, and talks, which provide an intimate look into artists and their craft. For the French Rendezvous @ Tai Kwun, Remue Ménage follows its street parade Le Bal with family-friendly circus workshops. Epicures and gourmets cannot miss the French GourMay and its series of gastronomic workshops, which promise to dazzle your palate and transport you to France, with exceptional wines and delicacies. Touch everything, be everywhere, for everyone, the thirty-second French May Arts Festival hopes to enrich and enliven your life with a kaleidoscope of programmes. Vive l'art, vive la vie!
Continuing our mission to touch everything and be everywhere for everyone, the 2024 French May Arts Festival is packed with cultural events that celebrate the illuminating power of exchange and savour the joys of French heritage.
Our East–meets–West festival facilitates cultural exchange on a grand scale with collaborations like The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Noir & Blanc — A Story of Photography, a first–ever partnership between French May and M+. Featuring hundreds of black and white photographs from the collections of Bibliothèque nationale de France and M+, the exhibition spotlights more than a century’s worth of photographic icons from Europe and Asia.
There’s no shortage of collaborations in other mediums. In music, France’s Thierry Maillard and friends team up with local virtuosos Eugene Pao and CY Leo for two nights of exhilarating jazz. In theatre, playwrights Nicolas Kerszenbaum and Wu Ho Fai close their two–year project, Let the Mirror Speak, with the Asian premiere of two original works. In dance, breakdance crew Compagnie Käfig shows down with French and Hong Kong orchestras in Symphony of New Worlds, timed for the debut of ‘breaking’ at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
Our unique, multi–genre line–up offers audiences and emerging local talents many opportunities to step out of the spectator’s seat and into the action. Alongside its presentation of Emanuel Gat’s fashion-fuelled eighties tribute LOVETRAIN2020, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels hosts choreographers Ola Maciejewska and Christian Rizzo for workshops with local art students. For the French Rendezvous @ Tai Kwun, Compagnie XY follows its acrobatics show Möbius in May with family-friendly circus workshops. Food lovers returning to the French GourMay can supplement their gastronomic tour of Southern France with interactive tasting workshops.
Nearly a hundred programmes to choose from, there’s bound to be something for everyone at our thirty–first French May!
In 2023, French May Arts Festival celebrates 30 years at the heart of Hong Kong’s cultural scene, stimulating creation, collaboration and artistic exchange that pulsates through communities, genres, borders and beyond.
In PULSARTE 2023, East meets West, Hong Kong meets France, as we forge cultural connections across the realms of dance, theatre, music, art and more in a series of original programmes created exclusively for the festival.
Reaching beyond borders, the Virtually Versailles exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum transports visitors to the sights, sounds and scents of this wondrous palace through the mediums of digital and virtual reality.
Engaging across communities, co-presented with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef and Arpels, we bring acclaimed international contemporary dance performances to both traditional and unique venues throughout the city, as we continue to present an exciting array of cultural experiences for everyone in Hong Kong to enjoy.
PULSARTE 2023 welcomes over 100 French artists to Hong Kong for the first time since 2019, including the Tana String Quartet, Keren Ann and the Debussy String Quartet, Théo Fouchenneret’s exceptional collaboration with pianist Niu Niu, and last but not least, Archibald Caramantran to manipulate their spectacular giant puppets in the city, presenting a truly international festival for our 30th Anniversary Edition.
Ever on the cultural pulse, French May Arts Festival is here to revive your creative spirit, as we challenge you to expand your artistic
horizons in PULSARTE 2023!
In contrast to the ongoing limitations caused by the prevailing pandemic, French May Arts Festival 2022 invites you to unbox your expectations and explore a new dimension of art and culture in Hong Kong.
As the bridge to promote French arts in Hong Kong, French May is committed to bringing joy and excitement through a diverse programme of performances across communities and venues, with ‘Art Unboxed’ presenting an array of inspiring collaborations between Hong Kong and French artists.
Join us to unbox culture in Cities of Light, by renowned Hong Kong composer Leon Ko, pop diva Gin Lee and jazz vocalist Talie Monin, as well as a tribute concert to Serge Gainsbourg, the world-famous music icon influencing French culture and lifestyle. Unbox boundaries in the week-long Carte Blanche to Christian Rizzo in Freespace, West Kowloon Cultural District, showcasing a unique collaboration with French choreographer Christian Rizzo and Hong Kong dance artists, in addition to circus arts online with French cirque specialists Barks Company and Centre National des Arts du Cirque Châlons-en-Champagne (CNAC).
Once again, French GourMay unboxes the sensations of French gastronomy, and we are also thrilled to host a selection of heritage talks with a focus on cultural interactions between East and West alongside the rebuilding of the famous cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris.
Through deconstructing boundaries and expectations, let’s explore the endless possibilities of arts and culture in Art Unboxed!
While the borders are closed, and the pandemic strikes the cultural art scene, we invite you to an extraordinary artistic journey.
More committed than ever to nourish the local art scene and foster cultural exchanges, the French May Arts Festival will feature French and local artists’ influences, interactions, and inspirations.
The French May Arts Festival is unique by the diversity of its programme. This year, we will notably present a remarkable exhibition in collaboration with Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Hong Kong Museum of Art dedicated to Surrealism. The acclaimed theatre director Tang Shu-Wing will stage the contemporary French comedy Plus Vraie que Nature while local jazz musicians will pay tribute to French cinema. Braving quarantines, French conductor Sylvain Gasançon will come to Hong Kong to collaborate with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for a series of classical concerts. In the meantime, the Hong Kong Ballet will evoke choreographer Balanchine’s life in New York, Moscow and Paris.
No matter the borders, escaping together for an Artistic Getaway!
“Life is a Voyage”, once wrote French poet Victor Hugo. A journey that all artists are embracing, translating the feelings and impressions of their inner world to reveal them to us.
For its 27th edition, Le French May and its artists will invite you on a voyage, through space and time, East and West, through different cultures.
Through a selection of over 120 events, you will be carried from the whimsical world of pop artist Niki de Saint Phalle to the latest creations of French design; to the sound of French romantic harp and Spanish castanets with legends Xavier de Maistre and Lucero Tena before heading West to Los Angeles with superstar choreographer Benjamin Millepied; travelling back in time through the mesmerizing pictures of post-war Paris by Willy Ronis, to the masterpieces of Berlioz by the renowned Paris Mozart Orchestra adorned by the artworks of Nicolas de Staël.
May and June will transport you outside of your world to a cultural “staycation” to be remembered. Buckle up!
Creation always comes from memories, impressions, emotions which shape our inner world. Artists more than others have always taken inspiration from nature, from the past, and from other art forms to create their own vision of the world and offer it to our appreciation.
The 2018 edition of Le French May will explore this constant dialogue through a series of programmes paying tribute to preceding masters, or revisiting some of the most iconic pieces of the repertoire.
Rediscovering works of the past, Angelin Preljocaj and Nathalie Stutzmann will present their own vision of timeless tales, while the icons of French jazz will pay tribute to French singers Piaf and Trenet, as well as composer Francis Poulenc.
Bridging ballet, hip hop, classical and electro music, the Rêvolution Dance Company will re-interpret Sauguet’s world-known “Les Forains” while the masters of French pop art will invite us to look at half a century of art up to the most contemporary creations.
Be ready to revisit your classics for a 26th edition full of colours!
As Le French May Arts Festival is entering its 25th edition, it is time to celebrate!
Opening with The Royal Concert of the Night: “The Birth of the Sun King” created to celebrate the rising glory of the Sun King, Le French May Silver Jubilee will be adorned by a series of unprecedented programmes, ranging from hip hop dance to jazz music, street arts to antique, cinema to design, and gastronomy.
A highlight of the celebration will be the unprecedented exhibition of the national masterpieces coming from the biggest museum in the world: Le Louvre! From the royal collections of sculptures and antiques to the well-known French paintings, Inventing Le Louvre will transport you through eight centuries of French history.
In conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, we cannot be happier, or prouder, to celebrate our Silver Jubilee with major programmes such as the Inventing Le Louvre exhibition, the live-video Royal Concert of the Night by Ensemble Correspondances, a tailor-made tribute to French dance by the stars of Paris Opera Ballet, and the performance by Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
As special occasions deserve bubbles to be celebrated, Le French Gourmay, our food and wine festival, will bring to Hong Kong the best crus of Champagne for a month-long anniversary.
Happy French May!
Under the theme "dreams and wonders", this year's festival aims to embark you on a journey of discoveries and surprises, to see the world with the eyes of the most talented French artists, performers, designers, or filmmakers!
From the fantastic danced tales of Cinderella or The Beauty and the Beast to the impressionist masterpieces of Claude Monet; from the unbelievable acrobatics of Extrêmités to the enchanted compositions of Mozart or Satie, your months of May and June will be filled with delights and wonders.
From the past, the present, or the future, artists and creators always transform the world according to their own vision. Their creations are a re-creation of a world on its own: the imagination of new rules, unique characters, impossible yet possible stories. It is this vision that they are sharing with you, on stage, on the walls, in the streets, or at the racecourse.
Get back your child's eyes, let the magic work, and take off the ground for a French fantasy of unprecedented worlds.
Celebrating French arts and culture, the 22nd edition of Le French May will present a selection of performances, exhibitions, and screenings in Hong Kong and Macau, from May 2nd to June 28th.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and France, Le French May will celebrate the everlasting exchanges, present cross-influences, and explore the similarities between French and Chinese cultures.
Le French May will take the audience on an incredible journey between East and West: from the story of Marco Polo performed by the renowned Nice Opera Ballet and an exclusive exhibition of paintings by Chinese masters who lived in France, to a cinema programme featuring French movies about China. The festival will showcase the best of Franco-Chinese cultural dialogues.
The festival will also focus on Lyon and the Rhône Valley as an emblem of France’s great diversity. Steeped in history and admired for its wine and cuisine, it also has an abundance of artists and creativity and is currently one of the most dynamic regions in Europe.
By investing in cultural venues as well as public spaces, involving the artists as much as the audience, and initiating cultural dialogues and exchanges, the 2014 edition of Le French May Arts Festival will continue to contribute towards making Hong Kong Asia’s World City.
