EFFEA at the Arts Festivals Summit 2024

@Geert Maciejewski

From 12 to 15 May, the picturesque island of Usedom transformed into a vibrant hub of cultural and artistic exchange with the European Festivals Association's Arts Festivals Summit 2024, hosted by the Usedom Music Festival. The annual summit is not just a routine gathering for European Festivals Association (EFA) Members. It is an ever-expanding get together of festival makers, artists, policymakers, cities and regions' representatives who share a common goal: to use arts festivals to further their ideas and objectives, profoundly shaping communities and localities.

Around 230 delegates from over 50 countries converged for three days of dialogue under the theme ‘The Art of Awareness, Caring, and Connectivity’. It was EFA's task to fuel the discussions on pressing issues, making the summit a crucial reminder of the arts' ability to bridge divides, foster understanding, and inspire communities across the globe. Feel invited to read Simon Mundy’s findings about the Summit - one depicts the general atmosphere and the other all the EFA communities who were present.

EFFEA Festivals and EFFEA Artists were invited to bring forward the treasury of the work they are doing, ultimately to foster opportunities for future collaborations and artistic development. The summit served as a platform to introduce emerging artists to the broader festival community, facilitate connections among festival organisers and offer them sessions focused on topics such as inclusion and diversity, well-being, sustainability, fair remuneration, and digitalisation, among others.

Against a backdrop of global divisions and looming EU elections, EFFEA Artists encouraged delegates to connect and experience the arts through their unique artistic languages. One of the highlights was a dance piece by choreographer and imagery artist Ana Pi, titled "Raw On" (spelt "No War" backwards), inspired by togetherness. At another moment, Ana Pi invited the audience to close their eyes, gently touch their hearts, and surrender to natural body rhythms and movements, fostering a moment of pure presence. Discover more about Ana Pi's EFFEA residency hosted by Malta Festival Poznań in partnership with SPIELART Theaterfestival, and Santarcangelo Festival.

The summit's closing night was marked by a performance from the string quartet of EFFEA Artists’Sofia Protasova, Viktor Glybochanu, Kateryna Suprun, and Guy Danel. Two violinists and a viola player from Ukraine added a cellist from Belgium to perform a recital that included composers Maksym Poplinsky, Felix Mendelssohn, Boris Lyatoshinsky, and Krzysztof Penderecki. It demonstrated without words what Europe's festivals have always been for - the advocation of peace and empathy. Discover more about the EFFEA Residency, which results from a partnership between the three EFA Members Usedom Music Festival, KharkivMusicFest, and Walden Festival, that came together through EFA's initiative Joining Hands and Hearts.

Emerging artists were also the centre of reflection during the Denis de Rougemont Laboratory 'Taking a Chance on Emerging Artists', led by EFFEA Project Coordinator Donika Rudi Berishaj and Representative of EFFEA Platform Member Croatian Composers Society and Music Biennale Zagreb Producer Mirna Gott. The ‘Denis de Rougemont Laboratories’ aimed to explore how the arts can contribute to our quality of life and consider organisational/ sectorial/ political strategies for improving living conditions. The Labs featured a series of parallel working sessions on ten topics, each steered by an expert, providing space for in-depth reflection and joint thinking for three hours.

During the 'Taking a Chance on Emerging Artists' Lab, the group aimed to reply to 5W questions - who, what, when, where, and why - focusing on the risks and benefits of programming unknown and new names in festivals. The discussions delved into strategies for reaching and collaborating with emerging artists, methods for presenting them effectively to festival audiences, theresponsibility of festivals to care for emerging artists, considerations for venue selection, cultural mediation, and more. Participants also explore the financial dimensions of programming festivals, including the impact of the budget and the potential for financial support and opportunities for emerging artists from sources such as EU funds (EFFEA, Perform Europe, Culture Moves Europe), city or local funds, or businesses. You can read the general conclusions of the Labs here and find more detailed notes on the topic here.

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For more information: Donika Rudi Berishaj, EFFEA Project Coordinator: donika@efa-aef.eu & Luana Santos, Communication and Administration Assistant: luana@efa-aef.eu