Hotel Carlemany - Plaça Miquel Santaló i Pavor, 1 - 17002 Girona

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to a COVID-19 infection, Lucía Vázquez will not be able to travel and present the session "How to integrate the SDGs in your festival".

The session will now feature Silke Lalvani from Pearle* introducing the new EFA/Pearle Cookbook on the EU Green Deal. It will be follwed by a collaborative workshop with festivals from around Europe and beyond sharing carbon experience and everyone attending pooling knowledge to start EFA grenprint for healthier, wealthier and happier, facilitated by Peter Florence and Tamar Brüggemann.

Sustainability is a broad topic. From climate change to social justice, it encompasses many important fields of our everyday life on a local, regional, national and international level.

In this session on sustainability, Pearle and EFA would like to introduce you to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Culture doesn’t appear as such in the SDGs but nonetheless various connections can be made. All together, we will discuss the place of cultural activities in this framework - in particular how festival’s day to day activities could integrate those goals, and in this way become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

What is the role of culture? How can culture contribute to the SDGs?  
If we want to transform the world - we not only have to change the political, econominal, educational aspects of our societies - we also need to transform our narrative, who we are. This can only happen through culture: Culture defines who we are and shapes our identity. Putting culture at the forefront of policies is the best way to build a better world centred around human beings, inclusive and fair.  

Lucía Vázquez will speak about how arts and culture relate to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She will share several examples from the performing arts and festivals sectors that are going more sustainable to concretely show how you can integrate the SDG’s in your festival.

The SDG goals ask for a long-term approach how to become more sustainable – however, immediate action on environmental sustainability is possible too: in the second part of the session workshop, Tamar Brüggemann and Peter Florence will present you 10 points every festival can apply to make themselves stronger, more sustainable and richer on the path to net zero.

Mandatory Carbon Action Plans are currently being added in many countries in public funding programmes, so wherever you are festivalling, let’s get ahead now. Building on the experience of 5 festivals that have implemented changes making life better, we will discuss the immediate fixes that we can all introduce this year that will be cash positive, carbon-efficient and properly engaging. 1 free tree in the European Festivals Forest for everyone in the room. What’s not to love?