On July 20, 2026, the French postal service, La Poste, issued a stamp celebrating the 50th anniversary of the jazz festival in Souillac, in the Lot department.
It all began on February 14, 1975, with the conference "From the Slave Coast to the Salle Pleyel." Organized in Souillac by the local UNESCO club, it was presented by the American academic Sim Copans. Famous for popularizing American music in France, he outlined the historical and cultural journey of jazz. Following this event, a group of enthusiasts came together and created a jazz festival. The statutes of the "Association for the Souillac Jazz Festival" were filed on January 7, 1976. Sim Copans became its artistic director and, from the very first edition, focused on showcasing iconic figures of jazz: Memphis Slim, blues singer, and Marie Knight, gospel singer. This success encouraged the association to organize a second edition.
The association has been successively presided over by Jean Calvel, Jean-Pierre Bailles, Sim Copans, and Robert Peyrillou, to whom his predecessors entrusted the artistic direction in 1985. Over the years, the festival has been enriched by new influences, embracing a true fusion of musical styles. Instruments such as the oud, koto, guembri, serpent, tablas, kemençe, and qanun have broadened its soundscape and piqued the curiosity of audiences. This festival, run entirely by volunteers, could not exist without their enthusiasm and commitment. Alongside them, they rely on other partners who have supported them from the beginning: private partners, local business sponsors, public partners (the Town Hall, the Department, and the Region), as well as loyal service providers. It is this alchemy that allows Souillac to live in Jazz through various events, cinema, hiking, exhibitions, free concerts in the streets and, of course, to offer magnificent concerts where musicians and spectators come together in the prestigious setting of the Sainte-Marie abbey church.
