International Festival of boring films 29 March to 14 April

Fed up with watching Bruce Willis save the world? Looking for something that takes a little longer to get into and understand? The international festival of boring films is for you. In the international fesitval of film chiant you will not find US blockbusters. On the opening night at Variétés cinema  for 11€ you can see films such as Please Say Something by David O'Reilly, a masterpiece of digital expression, and Enjoy Poverty by Renzo Martens, a film that flies in the face of those humanitarian documentaries that get everywhere.

On 3 April at the Protestant Temple 15 rue Grignan there's a cine concert, four musicians accompany Katarina Golubeva in her wanderings around Siberia, a concert by Toboflex and radical brutist guitarist Eric Menkkinen. There's a "mise en bouche", Moondawn by Argentinian Pedro Lopez, whose electronic sounds accompany another film featuring Golubeva. All for 11€, you can reserve by e-mail here

Babel Med World Music Concerts 21 to 23 March

Babel Med brings together music professionals, performers and the general public over three days and three nights at the Dock des Suds.  There will be four stages, 36 concerts and 190 artists from around the world.

Among the 11 performances on Thursday you can see the Tajik-Israeli Alaev Family, Spanish percussion orchestra Coetus, and Du Bartas with their traditional music from the Languedoc.

On Friday there are 13 acts including Afro-European Jazz from Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze, Congolese Rumba with Black Bazar and a "brilliant musical stroll along the shores of the Bosphorus" with the Turkish Taksim Trio. 

On Saturday, 12 acts including Hoba Hoba Spirit "Moroccan Rage, rock from Casa", Rosapaeda from Southern Italy and Tiloun from La Réunion.

Tickets cost 15€ per night or you can get a 3 night pass (exclusively from FNAC) for 35€, which we think is a bargain price for so much quality and variety. For practical information in English about tickets and how to get there visit the Dock des Suds website.

More contemporary circus - Orit Nevo 22-24 February

If you're a fan of contemporary circus, if you're curious, if you saw Knitting Peace, or if you regret not having seen it, here is another event that you should not miss. It's called Somewhere and Nowhere and it's about immigration. This production is a collaboration between Marseille based Archaos and Orit Nevo, an Israeli circus performer. It's a combination of theatre, circus and dance. Highly recommended.

It's at CREAC at 8:30pm on 22nd and 23rd and 4pm on 24th and it costs 16€. You can book via the MP2013 website or take a chance and pay when you get there. If you're using public transport, there's a bus leaving outside CREAC ten minutes after the performance to take you back to Bougainville metro.

A night at the opera. Elektra 13 and 16 February

Spend an evening at Marseille's wonderful opera house and enjoy Strauss's Elektra performed by Marseille's opera company. Elektra is the daughter of Agamemnon and when her father is killed by her mother's lover Elektra quits the country swearing to avenge the death. It's a story of death and vengeance, perfect opera material, all in one act.

It's at 8pm on 13 and 16 February and seats cost between 13€ and 77€

More Modern Circus - take a circus tour 1 and 2 February

After seeing that marvellous performance about knitting peace you will no doubt be looking for some more circus. The theatre Le Merlan is offering a circus tour in central Marseille with three different forms of circus performance in three unexpected places.

The tour costs 25€ (for the three performances and soup or tea) and the itinerary goes like this:

• 5:30 - 6:00pm Saint Charles campus, a welcoming vin chaud
• 6:00 - 7:00pm The company l'Immediat will entertain and challenge you with "Jubilation"
• 7:00 - 8:00pm Guided walk (30 mins), with a stop off for soup or tea, to the next destination
• 8:00 - 8:30pm Opus Corpus by trapeze artist Chloé Moglia at the Protestant Temple in rue Grignan
• 8:30 - 9:30pm Guided walk (5mins) with a pause to enjoy food provided by La Boite a Sardine
• 9:30 - 10:30pm De l'autre côté by Cirquons Flex at Société Marseillais de Crédit, Estrangin

If you dont want to do the whole tour you can go to see the performances separately (prices between 5 and 20€).

The start of a season of modern circus - Knitting for Peace 24 January

On 24 January the festival 'Cirque en corps" begins with a performance by the internationally renowned Swedish company Cirkus Cirkör. Is it possible to change the world by knitting? Can a world knitting movement make a difference and bring peace?  Performers use their bodies in apparently impossible ways to bring us a unique circus act that is not to be missed.

It costs 16€ and there are performances at CREAC 22 Boulevard de Méditerrannée, Thursday, Friday and Saturday starting at 8:30pm. If you're travelling from central Marseille, for the cost of a metro ticket there's a bus 10 minutes after the end of of the performance to the metro Bougainville or the Centre Bourse.

The festival continues for a month so watch this space.

A Weekend of music with Malik Ziad 18 - 20 January

La Meson has given carte blanche to Malik Ziad this weekend. He will perform Friday, Saturday and Sunday with different groups of musicians and different instruments. Malik Ziad was born in Algeria and likes to share his passion for traditional music using traditional instruments. He manages to mix music from North Africa, Brittany and Provence to produce his own particular style.

To get you moving, the first part of each evening is hosted by Big Buddha, a fine artist/DJ with an ear for creating great music mixes.

For a weekend of world music, this is the place to be. Each concert starts at 8pm and costs 10€