European Festivals Association
The text to the right is taken directly from the EFA website which you can find by clicking here.
The European Festivals Association (EFA) unites distinguished music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary arts festivals from Europe and beyond since 1952. Today, the European Festivals Association (EFA) connects about 100 festivals and festival associations in 40 countries. EFA members are the core element that make the Association an open, influential, international place for any festival that wants to be part of a bigger festival community.
The European Festivals Association’s mission is to unite and represent its member festivals across Europe and the world by contributing to the artistic life of Europe. It acts as the most important platform for arts festivals. EFA members take the joint responsibility that the arts are prioritised offering their platforms to bring the arts to the audiences. Access and participation in culture and the arts is a Human Right. By supporting and enabling artistic creation, production and participation, EFA and its members ensure that this right is made a reality for all citizens. Interaction between festivals, with public authorities and the other stakeholders in the arts are central to EFA's work.
A Festival is an Art Feast. EFA is a community dedicated to the arts, the artists, and audiences. EFA’s main role in the ever changing world of digitization and globalization is to connect festival makers so to inform, inspire and enrich the festival landscape. In this perspective, EFA is a festivals’ service provider; the oldest cultural network of European festivals! It was established to bridge the distance between organisations and all kinds of stakeholders; and to create connections. All this in function of the enrichment of a festival’s own artistic offer and its organisational opportunities.
European Festival Association Initiatives
FestivalFinder.eu is an initiative from the European Festivals Association. It is online search tool for audiences to discover all arts festivals, from music to theatre, streets arts to dance, literature… in 45 countries in Europe near and far. It guides international audiences, festival lovers, festival makers, artists, travellers, academics, journalists, bloggers, policy makers, city developers... through the world of Europe’s diverse cultural space. It is rooted in and steered by the festivals community with the support of the European Union. All arts festivals are invited to register and join the ambition to be the most up-to-date, insightful, and complete searchable database world-wide that brings the arts to the attention of audiences: ever growing, never ending. You can find the Lacuna Festivals on this database by clicking here.
The EFFE Label is Europe’s quality stamp for remarkable arts festivals showing their engagement in the field of the arts, community involvement and international openness. Today, more than 1550 festivals across Europe received the EFFE Label.
Some festivals on the FestivalFinder.eu, including Lacuna Festivals, have the EFFE Label. This Label was handed out to them after being evaluated by international experts in the festival world. These labelled festivals fulfill a minimum of 7 out of the following 10 quality standards.
These festivals are embedded in the European artistic, cultural and social reality as well as:
- presenting a coherent and curated artistic programme;
- supporting on-going artistic development (some examples of this are: offering residencies to artists, contributing to new creations, and supporting artistic research);
- providing opportunities for upcoming or innovative artists to create or to be presented in your programme;
- being rooted in its’ local community fostering local connections in the programme and among the performers/performances. The festival involves local artists as well as local audiences in its projects;
- helping to increase access to culture and attract diverse audiences. (some examples include different socio-economic backgrounds, age groups, genders, and cultures);
- taking measures to be more sustainable. This can refer to environment, economics, business models, and social impacts;
- helping to shape, encourage and promote intercultural experiences for your audiences and artists;
- embracing inclusivity as a core principle and practice;
- investing in innovation and capacity building;
- engaging with audiences, for example through educational programmes.
All text above is from the Festival Finder website. Click here to visit the Festival Finder page on the EFFE label.
