National Bagadoù Championship

The National Bagadoù Championship is a musical competition in which around a hundred bagadoù take part, divided into five categories. Held annually since 1949, it is divided into two rounds, at the end of which the groups are ranked and either promoted or relegated.
Since 1949, Bodadeg ar Sonerion has organized the national bagadoù championship. The championship divides the 150 bagadoùs in Brittany and elsewhere who are willing and able to participate into five categories. The categories are divided into levels, with changes of category taking place at the end of each edition. Historically, the championship is closely linked to towns like Brest and Lorient, where the first editions were held, and where the 1st category still competes. The various meetings have also been held in cities such as Quimper, Vannes, Pontivy, Concarneau, Plœmeur, Pont-l'Abbé, Carhaix, and Saint-Brieuc.
At the end of the 1940s, following the creation of the first bagadoù, several groups were established in various Breton towns. In 1949, the first "competition for the best ringers" organized by Bodadeg ar Sonerien under the direction of Polig Monjarret included a "clique" category, which was then the name of the first bagadoùs, derived from musical cliques. Although Bodadeg ar Sonerion had 500 members at the time, only three groups took part in this first edition, where each group had to be made up of at least 6 binioù, 4 bombardes, and 2 drums.
The first championships, organized from 1949 onwards, brought together a small number of groups. Most of them were made up of traditional ringers, close to the rural culture of the time. This explains why the first groups to win titles came from small towns or rural areas. A group from Carhaix, the Kevrenn Paotred An Hent Houarn, won the first two editions in 1949 and 1950, and the Bagad Koad Serc'ho, from a village near Morlaix, won the 1953 and 1954 editions. Kevrenn de Kemperle and C'hlazig, who shared the titles in 1951 and 1952, came from larger towns but were still groups of ringing couples from the surrounding countryside.
During the "Brest era" of the competition, from 1953 to 1970, the dominant groups were Kevrenn de Rennes, the two Brest kevrenn (Ar Flamm and Brest Sant Mark), Bagad Boulvriag and Bagad Bleimor. The title was contested by these main groups for 17 years. The winning groups then came from larger urban centers, reflecting the changing composition of these groups; ringers followed their professional obligations and moved to bigger towns, and recruitment evolved. La Kevrenn de Rennes was the first to make its mark during this period, winning the 1955 and 1956 editions, and taking three more titles in 1963, 1967, and 1969. The group continued to make a lasting impression in the 1970s and 1980s, but was penalized by abandoning the percussion section, and subsequently failed to regain the title. Kevrenn Brest Sant Mark went on to dominate the next two decades, winning 11 titles between 1954 and 1974, including five between 1970 and 1974. The only groups to come between them were Kevrenn Brest Ar Flamm (in 1958 and 1962), Bagad Boulvriag (declared winner in 1962 before being downgraded for lack of a tenor), and Bagad Bleimor (in 1966, and sharing the title with Brest Sant Mark in 1973).
The following fifteen years, from 1975 to 1990, saw two new groups competing for the championship. Bagad Kemper, which moved up to the first category in 1969, won four consecutive titles from 1975 to 1979 but had to share the following titles with Kevrenn Alré, then led by an outstanding penn-sonner, Roland Becker, who won the title in 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1986. In the 1980s, however, other groups succeeded in beating this duo: Bleimor in 19807, and Bagad Bro Kemperle in 1989.
The 1990s saw the emergence of a third group, Bagad Roñsed-Mor from Locoal-Mendon, which managed to squeeze in between Kevrenn Alré and Bagad Kemper. This newcomer took the title in 1990, relegating Kemper to 2nd place Bagad Kemper only regained its title in 1991 against Kevrenn Alré, but lost the following year to Kevrenn Alré, and then again in 1993 to Roñsed-Mor, who took the title. Kemper regained the title in 1994 on points, while Roñsed-Mor won the spring event in Vannes and Kevrenn Alré the summer event in Lorient. The scenario was repeated the following year, with Roñsed-Mor winning the spring event, held for the first time at Le Quartz in Brest, and Kevrenn Alré winning the summer event, this year tied with Kemper. Kemper won the title twice during this decade in 1997 and 1998, Alré took the title in 1996 and Roñsed-Mor in 1999.
From 2001 to 2007, the same groups shared the titles, except in 2001, when Kerlenn Pondi won, and 2007, when Bagad Brieg did likewise.
From 2008 onwards, Bagad Cap Caval dominates the championship with 7 titles (2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019). The rules changed in 2003, with the introduction of a ranking system based on the "tuilage" principle: Bands in a given category with the highest scores in the winter event compete in the summer event with those in the higher category with the lowest scores. Scores from the previous six competitions are taken into account to determine whether a bagad moves up or down in another category, and the judges then score by rank. In the first category, only the top eight groups compete for the title in a category known as Maout. The system came under increasing criticism, however.
However, the system came under increasing criticism from the bands, prompting Bagad Kemper to boycott the summer event in 2009. An internal Bodadeg ar Sonerion music committee was already working on a reform of the scoring system at the time, which led to the introduction of a simplified scoring system for the 2010 edition. Each judge scores the various bagadoù between 11 and 18, and each bagad competes against the fourteen other groups in its division.
The 2020 championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as was the 2021 edition. In 2022, Sonerion revived the championship, which exceptionally crowned its champion over a single round, during the Festival Interceltique de Lorient. The 2023 championship returns to a two-round format.
Every year since 1999, Bodadeg ar Sonerion has published and sold CDs and DVDs of the 1st category competitions in Brest and Lorient.
Since 2010, these same two competitions have been broadcast live on the France 3 television channel with the help of the An Tour Tan association. Since 2017, a summary of the Brest 1st category competition has been broadcast on France 3 Bretagne as part of the Bali Breizh program.
The competitions rank bagadoù in five categories, with the best groups in the 1st category. The championship is governed by a set of rules that are regularly updated by Sonerion; the following information is based on the latest revision, dated July 2010.
The first four categories compete twice a year:
In the 5th category, the groups meet once a year, and the day is divided into two parts if necessary: the qualifiers (two or three pools) and the final (the top finishers in each pool). The top two finishers in the final are eligible to compete in the 4th category the following year, but the jury may allow more groups if it wishes. The 5th category has no limit to the number of bagadoù registered and participating.
Venues and dates for spring competitions in 2024:
Places and dates of summer competitions in 2024: