Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe is moving forward towards 2019-2020. Initiated by the European Festivals Association (EFA) together with the European Commission and the European Parliament, EFFE will be calling for applications for the EFFE Label and Awards, Europe’s recognition of remarkable arts festivals committed to the arts, their communities and Europe.

The EFFE International Jury is gathering at BOZAR Centre of Fine Arts in Brussels on 7-8 September, together with the EFFE Hubs to define the final criteria and the competitive process of this European scheme for festivals preparing for Creative Europe 2021-2027. Launch of EFFE 2019-2020 will be in November 2018.

1129 festivals received the European recognition for arts festivals in the pilot phase of EFFE. A new online search tool for audiences worldwide is added to the programme: The Festival Finder will go online in the beginning of November 2018. All arts festivals from 43 countries are invited to add their festival to this one and only European arts festivals search engine reaching out to international audiences, artists, travellers, academics, journalists, bloggers, policy makers,...

EFA President Jan Briers is excited about the finalisation of the Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe scheme and is looking forward to further develop EFFE as a useful instrument for festivals and audiences.

The EFFE International Jury chaired by Sir Jonathan Mills will select the most innovative festivals in certain categories for the EFFE Awards. The complete EFFE International Jury includes:

1.      Sir Jonathan Mills – president of the jury
Director of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit

2.      Mrs. Tamar Brüggemann
Co-director of the Wonderfeel festival Netherlands

3.      Mr. George Delnon (new jury member)
Artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera

4.      Mr. Peter Florence
Founder and director of the Hay Festival group, UK

5.      Mrs. Fairouz Nishanova (new jury member)
Director of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Geneva

6.      Mr. Keng Sen Ong
Founder of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA)

7.      Mr. Haris Pasovic
Director of the Mittelfest and director of East West Centre Sarajevo

8.      Mr. Pawel Potoroczyn
Diplomat, author, theatre, opera, film and music producer in Warsaw, Poland

9.     Mrs. Ruta Pruseviciene (new jury member)
Executive Director of Vilnius Festival and General Director of the National Philharmonic Society of Lithuania

10.   Mr. Renato Quaglia
General Manager of the FOQUS Foundation and Project Manager of the Friuli Future Forum

11.   Mrs. Virve Sutinen (new jury member)
Artistic director of Tanz im August Berlin

More information about the International Jury and Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe can be found here.