The Montmartre Grape Harvest Festival: 4 days of celebrations! What's on the programme?

The Montmartre Grape Harvest Festival usually takes place over five days in early October. This year, the festivities will take place from 11 to 15 October 2023, providing an opportunity to celebrate French gastronomy. On the programme: entertainment, music, parades, shows, exhibitions and tasting of local produce in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.

The highlight of the Fête des Vendanges is undoubtedly the "Grand Défilé", a colourful and festive parade through the picturesque streets of Montmartre. Decorated floats, musicians, dancers and street performers march past to the cheers and applause of the crowds.

The theme of this year's festivities is sport. Indeed, for its 90th edition, the Fête des Vendanges is borrowing the Olympic motto: "faster, higher, stronger - together", with a view to the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in the City of Light.

As well as adopting the slogan, the festival will combine sport and gastronomy, offering artistic, cultural, sporting and participatory performances such as the "Night Race", the "Sport Makes a Movie" screening, trampoline shows and dance battles.

The vines remain at the heart of the festivities, with tours of the Clos-Montmartre organised and presented throughout the event by historian and lecturer Jean-Manuel Gabert. The grapes harvested will then be used to produce Clos-Montmartre wine, a wine that complies with organic principles and offers a palette of aromas on the palate.

Did you know? The wine is matured in the cellars of the town hall of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, and the profits from the sale of these bottles are donated to the social works of the Comité des Fêtes et d'Action Sociale de Montmartre et du 18e.

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