To build and exchange knowledge on topics around festivals and for festivals in their territories
EFA through the EFFE Seal offers opportunities to city and region representatives to build and exchange knowledge on topics around festivals and for festivals in their territories through a tailor-made workshop during the annual Arts Festivals Summit and invites to other capacity building opportunities within EFA’s activities.
How do festivals shape their territories and how much do the specificities of their territories influence these festivals? What values are attributed to festivals by policy-makers at the city and regional levels?
These are some of the questions tackled throughout these workshops that aim to offer a process to speak about practices, policies and proposals.
The EFFE Seal workshops are facilitated by Nele Hertling and Nicolas Bertrand from the civil society initiative A Soul for Europe.
At the occasion of the Arts Festivals Summit 2024, festivals, cities and regions representatives took part in a tailor-made workshop that aimed to bring to the table concrete questions such as: how do cities and regions initiate and strengthen their dialogue with their festivals? How do cities ‘value’ their festivals - in which policy areas and actions do they address festivals?
At the Arts Festivals Summit 2023, the joint reflection focused on how arts festivals and cities can work together to address local cultural, environmental, social and economic challenges. More than fifty festival makers, artists and city representatives from Spain, across Europe and as far as Georgia, shared examples of local situations and views on the topic.
The workshop during the Arts Festivals Summit 2022 was held in conjunction with the launch of the EFFE Seal for Festival Cities and Regions and aimed to foster a more inclusive environment for citizens and civil society in local politics. Additionally, it sought to explore how arts and arts festivals can drive this process.