The shutdown caused by COVID-19 is having dramatic consequences for all of us. We have created special pages to announce which festivals were cancelled or postponed (initial overview of the festivals of our members on EFA's website and all festivals registered on FestivalFinder.eu supposed to happen in March/April), one of the last ones being the Edinburgh International Festival cancelling its 2020 edition supposed to run in August.

At this very difficult time, we are trying to gather as much information as possible to be together, inspire each other and guide our response to provide an accurate picture to governments and other funders about the needs of festivals. 

Many surveys on a national level are already going on, analysing the impact and challenges of the cultural and creative sector and if measures are taken by Governments. 

Because festivals have their own specificities, we have built a questionnaire to identify the needs of our sector, as well as to share best practices among you, the community. 

Your proposals will be highlighted in our communications and statements to political stakeholders on the EU level as well as other enabling institutions (in cooperation with more networks). 

We invite your festival to fill in our survey. The published results will be anonymous. We estimate it will take approximately 15 minutes to answer. We kindly ask you to send your answers before 31 May 2020. 

Thank you in advance for your reply! 

Quotes from EFA's plenary zoom meeting "Connecting the festivals community online: sharing needs and commitments" on 1 April 2020

"This is not a temporary crisis; this is the beginning of a new era. We need to change our attitudes and we need to find more sensitive / humble options for the future ."  Haris Pašović, Artistic Director of Mittelfest 

"There is this economics professor, Nassim Taleb, who is speaking about the "Black Swan theory" about things we see coming, but it’s only in retrospect, when we saw these things coming, that we are aware of the effects that these events had." Joost Fonteyne, Artistic Director of Klarafestival