Arts Festivals Summit 2025 Edinburgh
The Arts Festivals Summit is EFA's annual rendez-vous gathering festival representatives, policymakers, and partners for a 4-day in-person exchange about the arts and their role in society. Each year, a different EFA member hosts the Summit.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE ON WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH 2025
The European Festivals Association (EFA), the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh invite you to the annual get-together of the festivals community from 27 to 30 April 2025.
We will gather together on Sunday 27 April to kick-off a four-day programme of events taking place in the world’s Festival City and in the home of the Edinburgh International Festival, The Hub, in the heart of the historic Old Town.
The Summit will bring together some 200 people including EFA Members, Alumni of the Festival Academy, EFFEA Festivals and Artists, EFFE Seal Festivals Cities and Regions... It will provide a platform where we can listen to one another and share our experiences, our ideas, and our challenges, and explore how we use the platforms that we have to shape a better world.
There will be opportunities to explore the city and to meet representatives from the different festivals and cultural organisations that operate within it.
Co-hosted by the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh, this year’s Summit introduces a unique collaboration that welcomes the festivals community with a collective invitation for festivals and cities to work more closely together.
Discover the Arts Festivals Summit 2025
Programme
The annual Get-Together of festival makers in Edinburgh, United Kingdom hosted by Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh.
Speakers
Practical information guide
Need help for you trip to Edinburgh? Find more information on visa, travel and venues on this page.
Edinburgh: The Festival City
Edinburgh is renowned for many things: its beautiful architecture (both its Old Town and New Town have UNESCO World Heritage status); its rich literary tradition (recognised through its designation as a UNESCO City of Literature); its importance as the home of the Scottish Enlightenment (the source of ideas and inventions that laid the foundations for so much of the modern world) and, of course, its festivals.
Through the network of Festivals that exist in Edinburgh, you can enjoy extraordinary cultural experiences throughout the year, but it is the month of August when the city really comes to life. Venues and streets are brimming with creative talent and every day and night offers exciting possibilities to make new discoveries or catch some of the biggest names in the performing arts on stages and in concert halls across the city.
The Edinburgh International Festival is the original Festival. Founded in 1947, it was the inspired idea of Rudolf Bing, a cultural pioneer and refugee who joined with civic and artistic leaders to create an event that would transcend political boundaries through a global celebration of performing arts in Scotland’s capital city.
The City of Edinburgh Council was involved in the planning and realisation of that very first Festival in 1947 and has continued to support and champion Edinburgh’s festivals ever since.
There are now eleven official festivals that exist in the city, each of them contributing to Edinburgh’s unique reputation as The Festival City. Although each festival is an organisation in its own right, we are brought together as a collective through Festivals Edinburgh. Established in 2007, the mission of Festivals Edinburgh is to maintain and develop the Festivals’ and the Festival City’s position locally and globally.
Register for the 2025 Summit!
Join us and hundreds of other festival organisations in this exclusive event.
DEADLINE REGISTRATION WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH 2025
Credits
EFA's Arts Festivals Summit 2025 is hosted and co-organised with the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh.
