Cultural highlights 2025: Yes Breizh – strengthening Breton and Welsh links

Rémy Penneg, NHU Media

I am Rémy Penneg, Breton in body and soul. As 2025 slowly draws to a close, I would like to warmly thank Nation Cymru for this wonderful opportunity.

Even though I am not Welsh, but we are so close, Welsh and Bretons, it is with great pleasure that I share with you my Breton cultural highlights of the year.

Three Breton cultural realities the world still largely ignores

There are three essential cultural realities in Brittany that remain largely unknown, even here at home, and even more so elsewhere in the world.

The largest megalithic heritage in the world

Did you know that Brittany has, for a very long time, the highest concentration of megalithic monuments anywhere on the planet?

Nowhere else will you find such a density of dolmens, standing stones (menhirs), stone circles and burial mounds.

And it is only this year, after more than thirty years of persistent demands, that this unique heritage has finally been recognised by UNESCO… whose president, based in Paris, happens to be a former French Minister of Culture 🙂

The largest religious heritage in Europe

Did you also know that Brittany possesses the most extensive religious heritage in Europe?

Anyone familiar with our country knows that you cannot travel ten kilometres without coming across a 15th-century chapel nestled in greenery, a stone calvary at a crossroads, or a sacred well hidden in a small valley. This extraordinary network forms part of our collective soul.

One of the highest concentrations of music festivals in Western Europe

Did you know, finally, that Brittany hosts one of the highest densities of music festivals in Western Europe?

All kinds of music, including:

– the Lorient Interceltic Festival / An Oriant (950,000 visitors in 2025),

– Vieilles Charrues (220,000 ticketed entries),

– the Festival de Cornouaille,

– Hellfest in the south of the country, not far from Nantes / Naoned (280,000 festival-goers),
and dozens of others.

In Brittany, we have a very strong sense of celebration and conviviality.

Throughout the year, these events bring together Bretons, Celts and people from all over the world.

Breizh A Live: my artistic and civic highlight

Last September, in the heart of the country, in Karaez (Carhaix), the Breton-speaking singer Gwennyn, frustrated and even angry at the inaction of central government and the silence of many political leaders in Brittany regarding the decline of our Breton language, a sister language of Welsh; created, in record time, a major cultural event: Breizh A Live.

This wild night brought together thousands of people from across Brittany to listen to dozens of singers and bands.

Combining music, speeches and cultural activism, the event made a huge impact.

It will return in September 2026, in the same place, and we will be even more numerous.

Yes Breizh: my political and cultural highlight

My final highlight is both political and cultural. Gwennyn and many other artists created Breizh A Live to defend the future of our language.

And it is in the same spirit that Yes Breizh was born in 2025.

You, as Welsh readers, of course know Yes Cymru.

Our observation was simple: why do our Welsh cousins have Yes Cymru, why do the Scots have Yes Scotland, and why did we, the Bretons, five million people (the same population as the Republic of Ireland or New Zealand), have nothing comparable?

So, with a handful of volunteers, we did it. Quite simply.

We hope that in ten years’ time, like you in Wales, Yes Breizh will have become a strong movement, able to inform, mobilise and confidently promote our ideas of devolution of powers and responsibilities for Brittany.

I wish the Welsh people a wonderful Christmas and a joyful end-of-year holiday season.

See you next year.