Registration for the Arts Festivals Summit is closed and conference hotel is fully booked.

The European Festivals Association invites to its 2024 Arts Festivals Summit on Usedom/Germany from 12 to 15 May, hosted by the Usedom Music Festival.

The atmosphere on Usedom, Germany’s second largest island, located in the Baltic Sea, invites you with its over 42 kilometres of sandy beaches and beautiful nature, charming seaside resorts and ambivalent historical sites, to collectively think about and experience the purpose of the arts.

We invite for a moment of awareness: of our privileges and responsibilities (of festivals, of Europe) we will share and research in Peenemünde, a place that hosted a military research centre with the aim to invest in technological research to produce weapons of terror during World War II.   

We invite for a moment of caring, from our base at Hotel Kaiserhof (Seaside Resort Heringsdorf) directly located at the beach of Usedom: caring for the artists, for conditions of working together amongst festivals and stakeholders surrounding us, for our work and if not least for the planet.

We invite for a moment of connectivity: feeling, discussing, working and walking together, taking boats from the German to the Polish part of the island; connection of a large group of festival makers, artists, local, national and European decision makers who come together to question, to support, to contemplate and to dream up future projects. 

The Arts Festivals Summit Usedom attempts not only to understand but also to feel and experience the power of the arts today, with the invitation of a group of EFFEA artists who will allow us to experience the words we speak and hear: 12 May will be about connecting, 13 May about researching, and 14 May about the handcraft of our business, including the EFA Members General Assembly with the election of the new board, and the farewell party. 15 May will be departure day. 

Together with our host, the Usedom Music Festival, we are developing a rich artistic and cultural programme that includes a concert of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, a concert of Ukrainian artists, and the visit of the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum.

Usedom is an island of the Baltic Sea divided into a German and Polish part, located in the former eastern Germany in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is known to be the sunniest region in Germany and has therefore been named the "Sun Island". It is a famous tourist destination since the 19th century: the island is home to some very beautiful houses, especially in the seaside resorts of Heringsdorf, Ahlbeck and Bansin and to over 42 km of white sandy coast which invites you to enjoy walks and go swimming throughout the day. Above all the sunrises and sunsets cannot be missed.

On the cultural level, Usedom has much to offer as a place full of history. Among other things, the island is home to the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum. From 1936 to 1945, the research stations in Peenemünde formed the largest military research centre in Europe. Over an area of 25km², up to 12,000 people worked simultaneously on guided weapons, most famously the world’s first cruise missiles and the first ever functioning large-scale rockets, which was made mostly by forced labourers. Today the place is used for a sensitive education about the history and is an annual venue of the Usedom Music Festival.

There will be many opportunities for you before and after the Summit: to discover the region, to attend events in Berlin like Classical:NEXT, Theatertreffen Festival by Berliner Festspiele, and many other activities. We will give you more details in due time.

EFA's Arts Festivals Summit 2024 is hosted and co-organised with Usedom Music Festival.