Souillac (French pronunciation: [sujak]; Languedocien: Solhac) is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France, on the river Dordogne.

[3][4]: 3  When the Benedictines settled in the plain of Souillès, so named from a local word "souilh" meaning muddy and marshy place where wild boars wallowed, they replaced a community supposedly founded there by Saint Eloi.

[5]: 5  The French Wars of Religion brought further trouble to the town and abbey, both ransacked by Protestant forces between 1562 and 1573 and the parish church Saint-Martin was destroyed.

[4]: 8 Restoration of the Abbey church and the monastery buildings began in 1632 by the lord-abbot Henry de la Mothe Houdancourt and was completed by 1712.

[5]: 5 Souillac is in the upper Dordogne Valley where the river cuts through the limestone plateau of Haut-Quercy, a historic name for the northern part of the Department of Lot.

[7] The town is on the main railway line from Paris to Toulouse and is about 15 km (9 mi) south of the Brive–Souillac Airport which has international flights.

[14] The festival was started in 1976 by a group of volunteers enthused by Sim Copans, a United States Army non-combatant in World War I who came to live in nearby Lanzac.