To explore and inspire local festival policies
Festivals in Context: The Role of the Arts in Local Cultural Policy
Arts festivals take on multiple meanings depending on who you ask. For over seventy years, the European Festivals Association (EFA) has been in dialogue with festival makers across Europe and beyond, reflecting on the diversity and common strength of festivals regardless of their size, scope, or discipline. This report does not look at festivals from the festivals’ own perspective, but rather through the eyes of cities and regions — asking how they perceive the role and value of festivals within their territories.
The EFFE Seal publication Festivals in Context: The Role of the Arts in Local Cultural Policy examines how festivals operate within 16 local and regional cultural policy frameworks across Europe. Based on policy analysis, research, and insights from the EFFE Seal community gathered in the past year, it explores how cities and regions define, support, and value festivals — and how these relationships reflect broader transformations in cultural policy today.
The EFFE Seal Catalogue #1 On Environmental Sustainability compiles practices, experiences, stories, and approaches implemented in the 2023-2024 festival season. Organised in six chapters — Policy, Programming, Operations, Communications, Experiments and Innovative Solutions, and Challenges — the catalogue highlights festivals' experiences and local governments’ policies when it comes to environmental sustainability. It reinforces the EFFE Seal’s mission to foster better cooperation between festivals and their local authorities for the joint development of territories.
This action was inspired by a catalogue on sustainability called “Festiwale dla klimatu” created by the city of Krakow in collaboration with the Krakow Festival Office (KBF) and their festivals.
With this first action, EFA and the cities and regions aim to test a format that can serve to carry deeper research to explore festival policies in EFFE Seal territories to understand how festivals are valued across policy areas and feedback this to the European Union policy level.
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The EFFE Seal Catalogue #1 on Environmental Sustainability
The European Festivals Association (EFA) is delighted to announce the release of The EFFE Seal Catalogue #1 On Environmental Sustainability.
Trajectory of this initiative
EFA has initiated several actions to offer a space and a platform for festivals, cities and regions to exchange, explore ways of collaboration and improve their synergies.