Monday, 13 May 2024 | 11.00-15.00

The ‘Denis de Rougemont Laboratories’  aimed to understand where the arts can make a powerful contribution to our quality of life, and think about a organisational /sectorial / political way to make a next ‘move up’ on the living conditions scale. These Labs took the form of a series of parallel working sessions on 10 topics steered by an ‘expert’, providing space for in-depth reflection and joint thinking for 3 hours, to share personal experiences and systemic discussions. You can read the document summarising the findings of each group here and find more detailed notes on each topic here. 

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 | 10.30-12.00

This session highlighted 10 ways to green your festival and to make money. A brainstorm and workshop about best practice that really, provenly, excitingly works. It was facilitated by Peter Florence and Tamar Brüggemann, the initiators from the European Festivals Forest with the contribution of Mikko Laamanen as expert witness. More info here.

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 | 9.00-10.15

This hybrid performance-installation-roundtable-discussion-dinner-party facilitated dialogue through the gathering of human beings with common interests: festivals, culture and art, and their role in our societies for social change. You can find more info about this session here.

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 | 9.00-12.00

This workshop aimed to offer a platform for exchanges and knowledge gathering around the relation between festivals and their cities, inviting festivals and cities alike to take the floor and get into dialogue with each other. The conversations from practice to policy to proposals were hosted by Peter Inkei (Budapest Observatory) and conceptualised and facilitated by Nicolas Bertrand and Nele Hertling from A Soul for Europe. Read more here.

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 | 9.00-12.00

The Care Share workshop openly explored how we can gain back energy from the work we do and how we can re-engage with joy and purpose in our work after periods of exhaustion. This workshop was conceptualised and facilitated by Rarița Zbranca (Director at Cluj Cultural Centre and co-founder of Fabrica de Pensule) and Mahir Namur (Existential Coach, Lecturer & Trainer, Project Manager). Check out this page for info.

You can dive back in the keynotes of the Arts Festivals Summit Usedom by reading them in our e-magazine "Eye-to-Eye, The Festival Quarterly":

• Jelle Dierickx, Director of the Festival of Flanders Mechelen/Kempen: 'Don't hear up: Frau Luna’s Deep Listening'
• Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Prize winner:  'Visions for Europe'
• Kateryna Botanova, Cultural critic & co-curator of Culturescapes: 'A few observations on care, awareness, and connecting time we spent together with the war in sight'