Ils rêvent d’un festival universitaire où la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontreraient chaque année.

In French, the verb rêver changes meaning depending on the preposition:

• rêver de + noun / verb = to dream of / about something (wish, desire, imagination)
  
  • Ils rêvent d’un festival = They dream of a festival (they would like it to exist).
• rêver à + noun = to dream about something in your sleep, or to daydream vaguely about it
  
  • J’ai rêvé à ce film hier nuit. = I dreamed about that movie last night.
• rêver + direct object (without preposition) basically doesn’t exist in modern standard French in this sense.

So here, since it’s about something they wish for, French uses rêver de and that contracts to rêvent d’un before the vowel sound in un.

d’ is just the contracted form of de before a word starting with a vowel sound.

• Underlying structure: rêver de un festival
• Contraction: de + un → d’un

French always contracts de to d’ before a vowel or mute h:

• de un ami → d’un ami
• de une idée → d’une idée

festival universitaire literally means “university festival,” i.e., a festival organized by or related to a university.

Points to notice:

1. Gender and number

   • festival is masculine, singular → un festival
   • universitaire is an adjective that agrees: masculine singular form stays universitaire.

2. Adjective position

   • Some very common adjectives go before the noun (e.g. un grand festival).
   • More “descriptive” or “technical” adjectives (like universitaire, universitary/academic) usually come after the noun:
     • un festival universitaire
     • un débat philosophique
     • une conférence internationale

So its placement after festival is the normal pattern for this type of adjective.

In the sentence, où refers back to un festival universitaire and means roughly “where / in which”:

• un festival universitaire où la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontreraient…
  → a university festival where / in which literature, music and philosophy would meet…

You could say dans lequel instead of où:

• …un festival universitaire dans lequel la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontreraient…

This is grammatically correct, but sounds more formal or heavier. où is shorter and very natural in spoken and written French when you mean “in which / at which” for a place or event.

se rencontreraient is in the conditional (3rd person plural), not present or future.

Nuance of each option:

• se rencontrent (present):
  Suggests a real, current, or clearly planned situation.
  → “a festival where literature, music and philosophy meet every year” (sounds like it already exists).

• se rencontreront (future):
  Refers to a definite, expected future event.
  → “a festival where they will meet every year” (as if it’s already decided this festival will exist).

• se rencontreraient (conditional):
  Expresses a wish, dream, or imagined reality, not (yet) real.
  → “a festival where literature, music and philosophy would meet every year.”

Because the whole sentence is about what they dream of, the conditional matches this idea of a hypothetical or ideal world.

se rencontrer is the reciprocal (mutual) form of rencontrer:

• rencontrer quelqu’un = to meet someone
• se rencontrer = to meet each other, to come together

In this context, la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontreraient means:

• these three domains come together / meet one another / intersect in the festival.

It’s not about people literally bumping into each other, but rather these artistic/intellectual fields being brought together in the same event.

Because:

1. The subject is plural:
   la littérature, la musique et la philosophie = 3 items → grammatically plural → ils / elles.

2. The verb is in the conditional present, 3rd person plural:

• Infinitive: rencontrer
• Future stem: rencontrer-
• Conditional endings (same as imperfect endings, added to the future stem):
  • je rencontrerais
  • tu rencontrerais
  • il / elle / on rencontrerait
  • ils / elles rencontreraient

So se rencontreraient = conditional, 3rd person plural, matching the plural subject.

In French, abstract nouns (like “literature,” “music,” “philosophy”) almost always take a definite article when you mean them in a general sense:

• La littérature = literature in general
• La musique = music in general
• La philosophie = philosophy in general

French normally does not omit articles here the way English can:

• English: “where literature, music and philosophy meet”
• French: où la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontrent

Repeating la before each noun is standard and slightly emphasizes that each is a separate domain.

Both are correct and very common:

• chaque année = each year, every year
• tous les ans = every year

Nuance:

• chaque année can sound a bit more neutral or slightly more formal/written.
• tous les ans is very common in speech and slightly more colloquial.

In this sentence, chaque année works well with the fairly “literary” tone (talking about literature, music, philosophy). Tous les ans would also be fine.

The verb is actually plural, not singular:

• se rencontreraient ends in -aient, which is 3rd person plural in the conditional.

In French, the verb agrees with the whole subject group:

• Subject: la littérature, la musique et la philosophie = 3 elements → plural
• So the verb must be plural: se rencontreraient

You never just match the last noun; you agree with the entire coordinated subject.

No, there is no subjunctive form here; se rencontreraient is conditional.

Two different structures:

1. Relative clause with “où” (what we have):

   • un festival où la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontreraient
     → “a festival where X would meet…” (hypothetical → conditional)

   Here, où just introduces a relative clause; it does not trigger the subjunctive by itself.

2. Subjunctive after verbs that require it (e.g., vouloir que, souhaiter que, rêver que with a change of subject):

   • Ils rêvent qu’il y ait un festival universitaire…
     (rêver que
     • subjunctive ait)
   • Ils rêvent d’un festival universitaire où la littérature, la musique et la philosophie se rencontreraient…
     (no subjunctive here, just conditional to show it’s imagined)

So the conditional is the right choice for expressing the hypothetical nature of the festival in this structure.