Designed in 1987 with input from three French clarinetists (Jacques Lancelot, Guy Deplus, and Michel Arrignon), it's one of those rare cases where "designed by committee" actually worked. I'll call the Festival "R13-adjacent" but not identical. Buffet raised the register tube 2mm, which is kind of a big deal. This 2mm difference was snagged from the Buffet RC design, and grafted onto the R13 bore. (The R13's register tube placement contributes flat throat tones; raising it 2mm improves the Bb/B intonation, and tightens the register transitions as well.)

In case you're curious about this 2mm difference, here's the physics (if not, skip to the next paragraph): the register tube has to do two jobs simultaneously: It acts as a speaker hole to make the Clarion register pop out, plus it has to serve as the tone hole for throat Bb. These two jobs are acoustically incompatible. If you wanted to make a clarinet with perfect intonation, it would have a different register hole position for every note, which is kind of impractical. So clarinet makers compromise, and Buffet's R13 compromise left the throat tones flat and the "lower twelfths" (like low E to middle B, F to C, etc.) stretched. Moving the Festival's tube 2mm higher shifts which notes fall into the "sweet spot." The throat Bb is a little higher in pitch, and the register breaks smooth out. You can totally hear this in the recorded samples by the way — just select the R13 recordings to compare the Festival.

All that said, the Festival never quite overtook the R13 in market share (honestly, nothing Buffet makes will overtake the R13 any time soon), but it developed a cult following among players who wanted R13 character with smoother register breaks. And it's been in continuous production for nearly 40 years, which kind of speaks for itself.

In 2024, Buffet quietly updated the design. The right-hand clarion (Eb/D/C#/C) was running sharp, so they lengthened the body 1mm to drop it. The bell got 2mm shorter for more projection. If you're looking at getting a new Festival, you're getting the refined version.

Resistance: 5/10, Medium

Playing the Festival feels similar to the R13: middle-of-the-road in most respects. It's got a medium amount of resistance—though a bit less than the R13. Despite the lower resistance, the Festival somehow is able to have a a more mellow sound, which is usually reserved for clarinets that have a higher resistance. Innnnnteresting.

In general, more resistance in a clarinet design usually keeps the louder dynamic ranges from spreading; the clarinet "holds its core" and focus, but will provide a smaller dynamic range (on both ends, loud and soft) and smaller color palette. A less resistant clarinet typically provides a much wider tonal palette to choose from, but will require more control from the player to control pitch and sound consistency.

When listening for how a clarinet responds to added air pressure and embouchure control, listen to the Weber example (wide dynamic range and color range), then the Berlioz excerpt (wide dynamic range, but narrow color range), and finally the Gershwin excerpt (narrow dynamic range and narrow color range). You will hear how these clarinets respond — for better or worse! — to my input as a clarinet player.