Darko Brlek, President of the European Festivals Association and Artistic and General Director of the Ljubljana Festival, invites to the Jubilee Gala of the European Festivals Association in Bergen from 23 to 26 May 2012. Watch the video message on the Jubilee website at www.efa-aef.eu/efa60! EFA celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding in 2012. EFA will join forces with festivals around the world to celebrate, commemorate and in particular reflect on the present and future of arts festivals in the world. “The Association will enable us to create a real European community, a united Europe. A common cultural basis means no uniformity, though, it is a unity of diversity and this principle allows European culture to engage in a fruitful dialogue with other cultures,” Denis de Rougemont said when founding EFA - together with composer Igor Markevitch - in 1952. Under the motto “60 Years On: Festivals and the World”, EFA looks at the responsibility of festivals today to help shape the world tomorrow. Referring to EFA’s history and the role of the Ljubljana Festival within the Association in the past and in the future, Mr Brlek states: “In the last 20 years, the EFA has undergone major changes, particularly due to the changed political and geographical image of Europe. New countries have emerged, in some cases, unfortunately, accompanied by war, which has had an influence on the cultural image of Europe as a whole. The EFA has members in all of Europe’s countries; it tries to foster understanding of the European dimension and, of course, to present the dimensions of national cultures that are part of the European reality. It is no wonder that the EFA brings together more and more festivals, which have a decisive influence on the cultural image within their own environments, as well as on the social situation. There is no doubt that festivals are the first to reveal changes in society, holding up a mirror to it. In the past, membership in the EFA was extremely important for the growth of the Ljubljana Festival; in the future, the Ljubljana Festival, as a stable member, will endeavour to contribute to the greatest possible extent to the successful operation of the EFA and its members.” Watch President Brlek's message here and find out more about the EFA Jubilee on the Jubilee website.