The Off is the open-access counterpart to the official festival: no selection, no curation, any company that can rent a venue and pay the registration can perform. The result is around 1,500 productions playing in shops, chapels, garages and converted cellars, advertised by actors handing out flyers and parading through the streets in costume — the visual signature of Avignon in July.
Ticket sales across the Off are reported at roughly 1,410,000 for 2026 by the organising association. The figure counts admissions across every show in the city and is therefore an order of magnitude larger than the In's, which confuses almost everyone who compares the two.
Quality is genuinely unvetted, ranging from companies that will tour nationally to a first attempt by three drama students.
The practical method is to decide nothing in advance beyond a bed: pick shows from the street, the café boards and the daily word of mouth.
PlanningRuns the same window as the In; any company that can rent a room can play, so the programme is enormous and unvetted.