The European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) is, as its name suggests, a fund designed to empower festivals to support emerging artists in building their international careers. EFFEA Call #1 was a step in turning this eagerness into a reality. The first call for applications was launched in early October 2022, setting off a chain of connections, collaborations, and creative explorations that continued formally until December 2023 and, hopefully, extend far beyond.
EFFEA aims to ease the path for cross-border artistic collaboration, reducing obstacles so festivals can provide the stage and artists can focus on their craft. The Fund exists but steps back, enabling partnerships to shape organically and adapt to the unique needs of each collaboration. EFFEA is an initiative of the European Festivals Association (EFA), rooted in EFA's deep experience and trust in festivals. This trust underpins the belief that festivals can be unique and meaningul windows of opportunities for the arts, artists and society and that artists need a free environment to create. EFFEA’s task is to encourage long-lasting relationships and invest in a system where festivals are equipped to serve as incubators for artistic growth.
With a straightforward purpose and accessible application process, the Call generated enthusiasm on both sides: festivals and artists. Festivals sought partners, and emerging artists, often taking the initiative, contacted festivals directly to encourage them to apply. EFA hosted online Q&A sessions, networking opportunities, and detailed briefings on the Call, gathering hundreds of participants. The energy was palpable at the first info session, with over 180 attendees eager to dive into the process. Momentum grew as more sessions followed, hosted by EFA, EFFEA Platform Members, Creative Europe Desks and other partners. The excitement fueled action: as a prerequisite to apply, over 400 festivals registered on FestivalFinder.eu, a searchable database of festivals across Europe. For many, this was the first contact with a platform that could connect them to artists and one another.
The Call closed in November 2022. What started as an application process became a web of conversations, encounters and joint ventures spanning the continent: a vision of an ecosystem where artists and festivals could grow together, driven by curiosity, dialogue and mutual respect. The results were announced in early 2023: 142 festivals, working with around 43 emerging artists - representing over 170 individual artists - from 34 countries and across 16 artistic disciplines, began residencies between February and December 2023.
We are happy to invite you to dive back and explore the world(s) of each residency here. In the news section of the EFFEA website, there is a collection of EFFEA Stories written by either artists or festivals about their experiences, processes and achievements. Each residency is also featured on EFA's YouTube channel. As you navigate these residencies, you will notice a variety of formats, timelines, and topics. Support reached all kinds of festivals, from the small and nimble to the grand and well-established, grassroots or more institutionalised. It not only strengthened existing relationships but also forged new ones. Diverse outcomes resulted from the flexible nature of the residencies, where decisions were (mostly) left up to the involved parties. There were still certain guidelines: two categories of residencies, each with different grant amounts, ensured a structure to the process. In both categories, three festivals from different countries took a single artist or collective under their wings. All participants gathered for two key events: the Intake and Outtake Seminars, where they met with fellow grantees, EFFEA Platform Members, EFFEA Jury and guests invited to share experiences.
EFFEA Festivals and Artists shared a commitment to reflection and accountability. Insights into the activities, audience engagement, programmers' feedback, and the residency’s impact on the artists' careers were gathered through participants' contributions, feedback shared during online seminars, the Arts Festivals Summit and informal exchanges. These fed into a larger effort to understand and improve how festivals can nurture emerging talent. The result of this collective learning process materialised in the EFFEA Duty of Care Protocol. Written by Péter Inkei, Director of the Budapest Observatory, the Protocol distilled the lessons of the first round of residencies into a practical guide for festivals. It addressed vital questions of fairness, inclusivity, sustainability, and the changing dynamics between artists and programmers.
Now, the ripple effects of EFFEA Call #1 continue. Artists and festivals remain featured on the EFFEA website, newsletters, and social media platforms, keeping their work visible and celebrated. Festivals recognised the potential for future collaborations stemming from the partnerships established, although, for some, these opportunities can only materialise through the financial support provided by initiatives like EFFEA. Beyond the framework of EFA, its initiatives and membership, partnerships seeded hold the promise of growing independently, branching out into unexpected directions and contributing to a vibrant and interconnected arts ecosystem.