12 July 2025
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Rising temperatures pose an existential threat to the theater extravaganza, where extreme heat is making it tough for the audience.

As a punishing heat wave swept through Europe last week, some cultural events had to carry on with the show. The Avignon Festival, one of Europe’s largest theater extravaganzas, was just days from opening. And even as temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the festival’s venues — many of them outdoors — still needed to be prepped.

“Within 12 hours, we had adapted,” said Eve Lombart, who has been the festival’s general administrator since 2019. Working hours for technicians building stages and sets were adjusted, with longer breaks in the afternoon; to compensate, technical teams started as early as 6 a.m. at some of the event’s 40 venues.

The swift adjustments were the result, Lombart said, of years of behind-the-scenes effort to adapt the festival to climate change.

For Avignon and other events in the south of France, rising summer temperatures have become an existential threat. Days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit are no longer a rarity, with serious effects on audiences and workers. While air conditioning — less common in Europe than in other parts of the world — has been installed at most indoor venues, crowds typically walk from show to show throughout the day to catch as many productions as possible.

Visitors in Avignon find ways to protect themselves from the sun during the day.Pierre Gondard for The New York Times

Florent Masse, a Princeton University professor who is the director of the Princeton French Theater Festival, said that conditions had worsened significantly since he first traveled to Avignon, in 2002. Masse noted that on the opening day of this year’s event, the 30-minute walk back to the city center after a performance at La Fabrica, a venue in Avignon’s suburbs, was arduous.

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