‘‘ European arts festivals initiated a vital process of circulating and giving visibility to the different cultural streams of European arts and cultures, thus representing a huge step toward the development of intercultural competences. ’’

Partners and Sponsors

The Declaration is an initiative taken at the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu).

EFA is partner of the Steering and Contact Group of the Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue (www.efah.org).

EFA collaborates closely with 'A Soul for Europe' (www.berlinerkonferenz.eu) in this framework.

The Arts Festivals' Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue is an initiative of the European Festivals Association.

The European Festivals Association

The European Festivals Association (EFA) is a membership organisation representing hundreds of art festivals across Europe and beyond. In its more than fifty years of existence, the Association has grown into a representative, authoritative, open and dynamic network with more than a hundred music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary festivals, national festivals associations and cultural organisations from 38 different (mainly European) countries altogether. Since 2004, the EFA offices are based in Belgium, in the heart of Europe.

All EFA members have in common significant objectives, incorporating artistic, cultural, social and political facets. They share the love for ART, they are INTERNATIONALLY oriented and they thrive on INNOVATION. Each festival is set in its own very special context but all strive at generating a stimulating and collective, individual atmosphere among AUDIENCES and artists.

The EFA work programme is divided into four main strands:

• 1. Service and Information
  Internally, EFA stimulates, facilitates and coordinates contacts and enhances co-operation and co-productions by means of online and offline networking and meeting opportunities and provides service and information to members, ensuring also a permanent representation at the public level.
• 2. Research and Knowledge
  EFA stimulates researches on festivals and increases knowledge transfer by means of the EFA BOOKS series, one of the major flagship projects of the Association, in order to disseminate and offer reliable data, trends, and recommendations to festival operators, public authorities, the media and potential sponsors. On a longer term, EFA aims to set up a "Festival Centre of Knowledge".
• 3. Training and Education
  EFA creates training and networking opportunities for young festival managers through the "European Atelier for Young Festival Managers", an exclusive, one-week intensive workshop designed especially for carefully selected beginning festival programmers. It combines high-level discussion and reflection with hands-on training by renowned festival directors and provides a unique platform for invaluable networking opportunities.
• 4. Cultural policies
  EFA is the gateway to and advocate of the festival branch at a broader European level. Contributing to the cultural debate and lobbying for the role of arts, culture and in particular festivals in a political framework by means of flagship projects such as the Arts Festivals' Declaration or structured cooperation with colleague networks through the European House for Culture belongs to the permanent task of the Association!

To find out more about EFA visit the EFA website at www.efa-aef.eu

Contact:

European Festivals Association
Kleine Genstraat 46
9051 Gent
Belgium
T: +32 9 241 8080
F: +32 9 241 8089
M: info@efa-aef.eu
www.efa-aef.eu

Sponsors

EFA would like to thank for their support: the National Lottery of Belgium, the city of Gent and the European Union.