Montguyon: a small rural commune of 1600 inhabitants in Haute-Saintonge, at the southern end of Charente Maritime.

1979: Christian Granger, a teacher at Montguyon school, with a handful of friends, creates the first International Festival of Folklore.

A challenge….a success!

Despite the loss of its founding president, the Mondiofolk team, enriched each year by new benefactors, continues its work as enthusiastically as ever.

The objective is simple but ambitious: peace in the world.  But how can this be achieved?

By encouraging friendly relations between artists from a dozen different nations from around the world these, like small seeds, grow and reinforce links between all the citizens of the world.

Dancers and musicians from around the world come to share their cultures with other nations but also, and above all, with their hosts, the French people.

When the foreigner is no longer a stranger, he no longer incites fear – the fear which leads to so much violence.

The local population is also able to share in this exchange of cultures as the dance teams are all hosted by different communes in the district.  This allows us to share great moments of joy and emotion each year.  Contacts with the hosted teams continue long after the end of the festival and thus form links in a chain of international friendship.

We work as a team, but we also work very closely with the commune and our fellow citizens to whom we offer free displays in the streets and on our “Village” stage near the “Restoration” performance area.

We are also proud to have been accorded the title “Sites en Scene” by the General Council of Charente Maritime and to have benefited from the support of the Regional Council of Poitou-Charente.