Riviera summer evenings: roller disco, jazz and readings
The end of July 2026 offered a clear picture of what an evening on the Côte d’Azur looks like: a free roller-disco at Nice’s cultural centre, an open-air concert by five-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo in Mandelieu, a reading of Fitzgerald at a villa above the sea in Cap d’Ail and Gershwin by the walls of the basilica in Menton. All four events fell on the same evening, 28 July — and this is a typical density of the programme at the height of the season.
🛼 Nice: roller-disco in a hangar, free entry
From 28 to 31 July 2026 the large hangar of the Le 109 cultural centre in Nice ran as a roller-disco — part of the city’s summer festival Belaprem. Four nights in a row, from 17:30 to 00:30, both beginners and experienced skaters rode to music on a specially equipped track.
Entry to the venue was free. You could bring your own skates or hire them on site for 5 €, helmets for 1 €; helmets were mandatory for children. There was food and drink on site; parking cost 5 € and card payment only, reports Nice Premium.
Lessons and beginner sessions ran free all evening: instructors put skates on those trying them for the first time. The skating was run by The Riviera Skates — the first school on the Côte d’Azur entirely dedicated to skating; it operates between Nice, Antibes and Cannes and runs classes, internships and outings all year round. The format returns to Nice every summer.
🌍 Mandelieu: Angélique Kidjo and the album HOPE!
On the evening of 28 July 2026 Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo performed at the Théâtre Robinson in Mandelieu-la-Napoule. The concert was part of the Les Nuits de Robinson festival, which ran from 9 July to 20 August 2026.
The venue is an open amphitheatre of 438 seats: semicircular rows descend to an elliptical stage, and in summer it’s one of the most comfortable stages on the coast. Kidjo brought the tour programme in support of the album HOPE!, where her trademark blend of African rhythms with pop, jazz and R&B addresses themes of solidarity and resilience. The singer won her fifth Grammy in 2021 for the album Mother Nature.
“Music is a universal language that unites us,” Kidjo said in an interview with Nice-Matin before the series of summer concerts.
📚 Cap d’Ail: Fitzgerald at the grand duke’s villa
That same evening at the Château des Terrasses in Cap d’Ail actress Valérie Bonneton read Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. The reading took place as part of Festival des Mots — the département of Alpes-Maritimes’ festival, which began on 17 July 2026.
The villa’s own story is no less Fitzgeraldian. It was built around 1890 for British banker William Mendel. In the winter of 1895 the house was rented by Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, brother of Nicholas II, who came to convalesce from tuberculosis; his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, and Queen Victoria also visited him — the latter even stopped in Cap d’Ail for the occasion, reports Côte d’Azur France. In 2001 the city bought the building — today it provides around 1000 m² of exhibition and concert space.
🎷 Menton: Gershwin at the Basilica of Saint-Michel
The 77th Menton Music Festival ran from 25 July to 7 August 2026, and its main stage is the forecourt of the Basilica of Saint-Michel, where seats are placed directly on the square between historic façades.
On 28 July jazz was on: Neïma Naouri, daughter of opera singer Natalie Dessay, pianist Pablo Campos and the orchestra The Amazing Keystone Big Band presented a programme of George and Ira Gershwin — including “Summertime”. The concert ran for one and a half hours without an interval, tickets cost from 26 to 60 €.
🗺 What this means for planning
The coast’s summer programme is arranged so that you choose an evening by mood rather than by town: neighbouring venues are twenty to forty minutes apart.
- Some events are free — like the roller-disco in Nice; festival concerts cost from 26 €.
- Almost everything starts at 21:00, when the heat eases.
- Seats in historic locations are limited, and tickets for big names sell out in advance — it’s best to book as soon as the programme is announced.
The same principle applies further west: in Cannes summer evenings are carried by open-air cinema, and in recent years Menton has been developing its own literary programme. The heritage on which all this stands is preserved differently from town to town — Nice, for example, restores the paintings and floor lamps of the Opera.
— — —
Photo: Quentin Guiot / Pexels