Is there a place to exhibit in western France?
Art to Play in Nantes publishes 30,000 visitors and 201 exhibitors as audited figures

“Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulon, Bordeaux. Is there nowhere to exhibit on the western side of France?”

Nantes. A port city in western France, where an event called Art to Play is held every November. In 2026 it runs on 14 and 15 November at the Nantes exhibition centre. This event has one thing no other Japanese culture event in France has: its visitor and exhibitor numbers are audited by an independent body and published. Below we list only the official site and the audited figures.

1. It runs on 14 and 15 November 2026 at the Nantes exhibition centre

The dates appear on the front page of the official site: “14-15 novembre 2026”. Two days, Saturday and Sunday. Venue and organisation are as follows.

1. Dates: Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November 2026
2. Venue: Parc des Expositions de Nantes, known as La Beaujoire
3. Location: Nantes, France
4. Organiser: EXPONANTES, the company that operates the Nantes exhibition centre
5. Running since 2011

It is worth noting up front that the organiser is not an events association but the company that runs the exhibition centre itself. Loading schedules, power, aisle widths, fittings. You will be talking to people whose main business is running exhibitions. Most Japanese culture events in France are put on by volunteer groups renting a conference hall, so this arrangement is not the norm.

2. France has a system for auditing visitor numbers

Visitor figures for exhibitions are almost always the organisers’ own. That is true in Japan, and it is true of most Japanese culture events in France. But France has a body that recounts and certifies those figures.

1. Body: OJS (Office de Justification des Statistiques)
2. Certification: Expo’Stat
3. What is published: visitor numbers, exhibitor numbers, net exhibition space

Art to Play publishes its figures under this OJS certification. Among Japanese culture events in France, that is rare. For anyone considering exhibiting, it means one thing. You can check how many of the people you want to meet actually come, not on the organisers’ word, but on an audited number.

3. Three years of audited figures are published

The certified figures OJS publishes for Art to Play Nantes are as follows.

1. 2024: 30,719 visitors, 201 exhibitors, 5,949 sq m of net exhibition space
2. 2023: 31,730 visitors, 173 exhibitors, 5,859 sq m
3. 2022: 34,272 visitors, 147 exhibitors, 5,606 sq m

Two ways to read this. First, visitor numbers are stable in the thirty thousands. Second, exhibitor numbers have grown from 147 to 201 over three years while net exhibition space has barely moved. More exhibitors are fitting into the same area. By arithmetic, the space per exhibitor is shrinking year by year.

For anyone considering exhibiting, that is both good news and bad. You can now take part with a small stand, but your neighbours are closer and it is easier to be buried. Standing out through sheer size is getting harder at this venue every year.

4. The exhibitor fee is not published

Applications go through the exhibitor page of the official site. For the 2026 edition, however, as of 24 August 2026 when this article was written, the exhibitor page carried a note to the effect that it does not apply to this edition, with neither categories nor fees shown. Only a registration notice for artists appeared in the news section.

We will not guess at a going rate. Once written, a guess takes on a life of its own. If you are considering this seriously, ask the exhibiting contact directly through the official site.

We can, however, offer a guide on timing. At French events it is not unusual for exhibitor applications to close six to ten months before the doors open. If you want to be at the November edition, you need to be moving between the winter and spring of the preceding year.

5. The “spread into the regions” the white paper recorded

Our representative, Matsuyama, has covered the French manga scene for the Digital Content Association’s white paper, with repeated visits on the ground. The 2013 edition records that events, until then centred on Paris, had spread across the whole of France, reaching areas where Japanese popular culture had not been especially present.

The same paper records that in the 2012 financial year there were 58 manga-related events in France (source: Nautiljon). That is a figure for 2012, and does not mean there are 58 today.

Nantes sits at the western edge of that spread. About two hours from Paris by rail. It is the gateway to Brittany and the Loire, and its audience overlaps with neither Bordeaux nor Lyon.

6. In the calendar, November puts Lyon and Nantes side by side

If you set out to exhibit at a Japanese culture event in France, you have more than one option. By season, they line up like this.

1. February to March, Marseille: Japan Expo Sud
2. April, Toulon: Mang’Azur
3. July, Villepinte north of Paris: Japan Expo. The largest, with exhibitor categories and fees published
4. October, Bordeaux: Animasia. The gateway to the south-west
5. November, Lyon: Japan Touch
6. November, Nantes: Art to Play. The gateway to the west, with audited figures published

Lyon and Nantes fall in the same month. Doing both is not realistic in terms of either staffing or freight. You will choose one. As material for that choice, Nantes has third-party audited figures and Lyon does not. If you choose by whether you can put a sourced number in front of your board, it is Nantes.

We ourselves have exhibited eleven times at Japan Expo and similar events in France. Of everything those eleven taught us, we will offer one thing. There has never been a year where the first appearance produced a result. The approach came from the other side once it was clear we had stood in the same place again.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. How much is the exhibitor fee?

It is not published. As of 24 August 2026, the official exhibitor page states that it does not cover this edition, and neither categories nor fees are shown. You would ask the official contact directly. We will not guess at a going rate in this article.

Q2. Can the figure of 30,000 visitors be trusted?

It is certified by France’s OJS as an Expo’Stat figure. It is not an organiser’s announcement but a number recounted and published by a third party. That is rare among Japanese culture events in France, and it means you can cite a source when you put it in a document.

Q3. Can a Japanese company exhibit?

EXPONANTES, which operates the venue, places the exhibiting contact on the official site. Nothing excludes applicants from Japan. But because the 2026 categories are not posted, you would first confirm the terms with that contact.

Q4. Is this better than Japan Expo in Paris?

It depends on your purpose. For scale and visibility, Paris. But Paris has more than 800 exhibitors and the risk of being buried rises accordingly. Nantes had 201 exhibitors in the 2024 certified figures, roughly a quarter of Paris in absolute terms. If you are at the stage of wanting more conversations per person, Nantes suits you better.

Q5. Lyon or Nantes, in the same November?

If you choose on the certainty of the figures, Nantes. Audited numbers are published, and you can put a sourced figure in front of your board. Lyon’s Japan Touch is reported to be larger in attendance, but those are not audited numbers.

You can see our actual work on manga for overseas audiences. See our international manga work

Choose not by size, but by what you can verify. That is what eleven appearances taught us.