Festivals as Ecosystems of Care
On 29 October 2026 online, join us to explore how festivals can foster more caring, sustainable and meaningful cultural practices.
How can festivals create the conditions for more caring, sustainable and meaningful cultural practice?
In this online seminar, the cultural manager, psychological counselor and existential coach Mahir Namur will present Festivals as Ecosystems of Care, a conceptual reader developed within the EUFEAST project as a training resource for festival professionals.
The session will introduce a care-oriented and existential perspective on festival management, looking at how purpose, relationships, organisational conditions, power, participation and sustainability are connected within the wider festival ecosystem.
Festival management is usually approached through planning, finance, production, marketing, governance, audience development and organisational efficiency. These fields remain necessary. Festivals must secure resources, coordinate complex processes, meet legal responsibilities and produce work within limited time and capacity. Yet festivals are not mechanical systems, and the people involved are not functions within a production process. Festivals are created through human beings who perceive, interpret, choose, relate, carry costs, exercise power, search for meaning and respond to uncertain conditions. The aim of this resource is to contribute to humanise festival management: to complement conventional business and administrative approaches with an understanding of the persons, relationships, meanings and living conditions through which cultural work becomes possible.
Hosted as a conversation starter, the seminar will open space for EFA members, EFFE Seal city and regional representatives, FestivalFinder.eu festivals, EUFEAST partners and their stakeholders to introduce this learning resource and engage with it. After Mahir Namur’s presentation, participants will be invited to share their thoughts, questions and reflections in an open discussion.
Festivals as Ecosystems of Care
About Mahir Namur
Mahir Namur is a Cultural manager, psychological counsellor, and lecturer. With a professional background that combines engineering, cultural policy, and psychological counselling and coaching, over the past 25 years, he established and managed a cultural NGO and a cultural enterprise and has developed and managed transnational cultural projects, festivals, and collaborations across Europe and Turkey, focusing on dialogue between artists, institutions, and communities.
His work explores the connections between arts, social engagement, and mental well-being, with an emphasis on fair and sustainable working practices in the cultural sector. Trained in existential analysis, coaching, and psychological counselling, he has experience supporting individuals and organizations in addressing existential issues and creating healthier work environments.
As a lecturer and trainer, he has worked with universities and cultural institutions across Europe, contributing to programs on cultural management, participatory practices, and transnational cooperation in the arts.
Credits
The INTERREG EUROPE 2021-2027 programme, is a European cohesion instrument policy for interregional cooperation. EUFEAST is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), one of the EU’s structural funds dedicated to strengthening economic, social, and territorial cohesion.