 Since its beginning, the Festival has been entrusted to René Koering.Jean-Noël Jeanneney, président-directeur général of Radio France in 1985 declared the purpose the Festival was to "reconcile the classic and the unexpected, great interpreters and musicians making their debut, ancient accents and the sonorities of tomorrow... in the great tradition of public service"
The Festival is held in July (14 to 31 July in 2008, 11 to 28 July in 2011).The Festival licenses, under its Euterp label, notable visual and audio recordings to Accord, the French arm of Universal Classics.