This summer, you are invited to the first edition of the Couthures festival, organized by the magazines XXI and 6Mois, on the 29th, 30th and 31st of July, 2016. It takes place in south-western France, in Couthures, a quaint village located by the Garonne river, between Bordeaux and Toulouse.

JOIN US ON THIS BOLD NEW VENTURE!
When XXI was created, its entirely new format already seemed a daring bet. An investigative journal without any advertisement that would bring together writers, reporters, photographers and cartoonists? There was no such thing. Eight years later, you are more than 40,000 faithful readers demonstrating your commitment to this substantive journalism, which has since then attracted many vocations.
Three years later, 6Mois followed, reviving the link between journalism and photography. A bi-annual window on todays world, a beautiful object where photography finds meaning, relying once again not on advertising, but only on its readers. Another successful bet.
We continue to imagine other ways to develop a journalism that acts as a living witness to our times, one that can be shared by many. Our new project is to create an event like no other.
Les ateliers de Couthures has a dream to unite an international newsroom, its readers and its living subjects. Journalism in all its forms, embodied, directed on this unique stage, with topics that relate to a multifaceted audience, not necessarily readers. A project that is still as crazy, as exciting, and again, with you.

WHO ARE WE?
A team of journalists working at XXI and 6Mois, but not only. Above all, people who are eager to exchange on issues that enthral us.

WHY COUTHURES?

Because XXI is all about long-lasting friendships. One of our very first support and friend was the late Philippe Chaffanjon, head of news radio channels France Info and France Bleu. He is the one we have to thank for XXIs tagline, Linformation grand format (Information on a large scale). Philippe came from a place called Couthures, a small village located in the Lot-et-Garonne region. He had plans for his hometown, which he spoke of with passion; he dreamt of a cultural venture that would rival the nearby Marciac festival, one of the worlds most incredible jazz festivals that takes place every year in the south of France.

WHY A FESTIVAL?

Because only a festival would allow conferences, exhibitions, screenings, plays, documentaries, portfolios, artists and various speakers to testify and share their vision in a unique location; a series of old tobacco drying barns, rehabilitated into a one-of-a-kind festival location.

WHY INTERNATIONAL?

XXI and 6Mois call has been answered with enthusiasm by three major magazines: the prestigious American monthly Harpers Magazine, Internazionale, a weekly wakeup call for the Italian press, and the newest addition to long-form journalism in Berne, Reportagen. Each brought experience, a list of contacts, and their ambitions. They will form the dream team members of our yearly ephemeral newsroom, enriching it with a profusion of talents, singular voices, actors of every age and country united with a passion for journalism.

WHY THE LIVING PRESS ?

Because our festival needed a voice, each year a celebrity unrelated to journalism will act as sponsor. This summer, the rapper Mc Solaar has answered our call. His voice will be our voice.

Its now up to you to organize a stop by the river Garonne during your summer holiday. Bring your friends, our common rallying cry is Couthures! Soon, everyone will easily locate it on a map; its right there, all the way south, by the river!

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Tobacco drying barns, named schoirs, made available by the people of Couthures, will be converted into workshops. Each schoir will have its own theme that will be dealt with in different ways: stories by journalists, testimonies by experts or different actors involved, photo exhibitions that report on various topics, shows …

For the moment, a sechoir looks like this:

And to get an idea of the topics:
– The alternatives to prison
– Border and men
– Food Revolutions
– Faces of Iran
– the disturbers
– A participatory world
-Terror and monitoring

On the village square, a stage will host radio experiences, plays, concerts, readings, etc.

Find the detailed program of the three days on our website Les ateliers de Couthures.
Your main problem will only be TO TAKE YOUR PICK among all these proposals.
Heres an example of your agenda after a drastic choice …

SO COME ALONG!
Join us for three incredible days:
come by yourself to meet us,
with a friend to share what you have seen and heard,
with many to take part in as much action as possible,
come to exchange, ask questions, share, respond …
Journalists and actors of all kinds and all countries answered our call,
Its your turn now,

become the first audience-actor-founder of this new festival!

Your participation allows the development of the common area of the festival
– Funding for the main stage on the village square: The stage will welcome multiple and varied shows. It requires substantial technical infrastructure (sound equipment, installation and dismantling of the structure, sound and light control), security arrangements and special maintenance for three days. Its is the nerve centre of the festival, the place of gatherings, informal exchanges between you, us, and the different actors of the schoirs.
– Funding for the food court. As well as supplying the brave team of volunteers who will facilitate your wanderings and will guide the speakers throughout the festival.
– The reorganisation of the Church of Couthures into a screening space for photographic narratives (setting of a giant screen and a control room for different projections by the recent and talented Hanover-based LUMIX festival.)
WITH YOU, OUR PROJECT IS BUILDING UP!

SECOND LEVEL: 70 000

Your participation helps opening the festival to the world.
Our speakers come from all over the world, in order to enable a diversity of viewpoints. This additional level gives us new possibilities: it allows us to invite more participants from around the world (support for travel, accommodation, catering) to fund more live translations, the subtitling of video recordings, to be later broadcast with free and unlimited access at the end of the festival.

WITH YOU, OUR PROJECT IS CROSSING BORDERS!
And if thanks to you, we reach this second level,
be sure that we still have plenty of ideas to implement …
So let us all be actors in this newly emerging festival

and go for Couthures!

By helping us, you could get some earlybirds tickets, and also :

MC Solaar, “Patron” of this first edition

Laurence Corona, Festival director

Marie-Pierre Subtil, 6Mois’s editor in chief

Patrick de Saint-Exupery, XXI’s editor in chief

– Lena Mauger (Border and men)
– Mathieu Palain (The alternatives to prison)
– Anne-Sophie Novel (Food Revolutions)
– Marion Quillard (Faces of Iran)
–Augustin Scalbert (the disturbers)
–Guillemette Faure (A participatory world)
– Mathilde Boussion (Terror and monitoring)