The Festival d'Avignon, or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in French city of Avignon. An arts festival or art fair is a Festival that focuses on the Visual arts, but which may also focus on other arts This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Avignon (/aviɲɔ̃/ in French) ( Provençal: Avinhon in classical norm or Avignoun in Mistralian norm is a commune Founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, it is the oldest extant festival in France and one of the world's greatest. Jean Vilar ( March 25, 1912 - May 28, 1971) was a French man of the theatre who created in 1947 the Avignon theatre festival.