A unifying thread throughout the region, water is ever-present in our landscapes, memories, and daily lives. As a vital resource and a treasure to protect, it now inspires a powerful collective movement through ‘Capital Bleu’.
With over 100 artistic, festive, and civic events, ‘Capital Bleu’ has brought the region together in a grand celebration of water. Performances, walks, exhibitions, concerts, and installations have enlivened towns and villages, uniting all audiences around this precious element.
The season began in May with a spectacular opening ceremony in La Ciotat, orchestrated. Throughout the spring and summer, water became both stage and muse, inspiring original creations such as the Caravane Bleue a traveling celebration that brought parades, water-themed dances, and transformed town squares to 14 municipalities.
The traveling ‘Capital Bleu’ exhibition accompanied the season’s highlights. Designed as a museum-style journey, it offered a six-part immersive experience: water as the source of life, a land shaped by water, tamed water, trade and prosperity, inspiring water, and the call of water. A sensitive and educational way to reflect on our relationship with this essential resource.
The Sundays in May also offered guided walking tours to explore the region’s natural heritage: aqueducts, dams, canals, the banks of the Durance, and the Étang de Berre, all led by passionate experts. Additional events added richness to the program, including floating theater, neighborhood festivals, brass bands, street food, exhibitions, and offbeat hikes.
The highlight of this festive year: La Grande Soirée ‘Capital Bleu’, scheduled for August 30 in Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône, featuring a breathtaking open-air spectacle.
A moving and collective journey that powerfully and poetically reminds us that water is not just a resource it is a shared treasure to be protected, celebrated, and passed on.
