There are always moments, a few weeks before the annual A Soul for Europe (ASfE) Meeting in Berlin each November when it all looks very shaky. The politicians invited by the organisers at Stiftung Zunkunft Berlin (SZB) are either still on their summer holidays or are already overloading their engagement diaries for the autumn. Those in the ASfE strategy group are worried that the funds will not be available in time to let them book cheap enough air tickets. SZB are scouring hotels looking for a half-decent deal. Venues are asking for details that no-one can supply (how many for lunch on day one?). In other words it is just like a festival. Blind faith and past experience promise it will be all right on the night – or in this case, midday on 7 November 2024.

And it was! In fact the 20th edition of the meeting was packed with people of every generation except the very young. Like any good festival – and I think of A Soul for Europe as a festival kitchen for good ideas; some new recipes, others perhaps reheated but still worth serving – there are those who have been regular attendees since the start, others who have joined along the way, those who have dropped out and reappeared, and lots who were new to the whole thing and spent the first hour or two wondering what they had signed up to (and who on earth we all were as we hugged each other).

The European Festivals Association (EFA) has been at the heart of the gatherings all the way through and has drawn in city mayors and their deputies from districts that would have otherwise have been surprised to be told they were crucial to the ASfE process. And the thinking that underpins ASfE has also had a radical effect on the development of EFA itself. Many EFA Members and staff have attended and been heavily involved in the Berlin Konferenz during all of its editions.

The event has learned a few things over the years. Gone was the stage with its line of men in grey suits. Instead speakers gathered around the spokes of a central wheel, standing or perched on high stools, so that they conversed rather than making long predigested statements. It was designed to feel as though the audience were watching a group of friends having an opinionated discussion in a grand café. Interruptions were encouraged.

The idea that they and we had signed up to from 2004 onwards sounded simple enough but, like a fine tapestry, became more complex the more it was examined. If Europe is not to be just a technocratic and bureaucratic construct, it must evoke a positive cultural response in its inhabitants, independent of national loyalties. We had all heard for years from European leaders that culture is important but they rarely explained either what culture they were talking about, precisely why they regard it as important or how they would demonstrate that importance in their policies.

It is perhaps because they only very rarely answer the first two parts of the question that the policy result is so often strong on rhetoric and short of cash. Only when they leave office, as was clear from the surprisingly visionary statements from former EU Commissioners like Jose Manuel Barroso and Mariya Gabriel, do they understand the true significance of the cross-community consensus they were trying to create. It is not all about money (though very little happens without that). The real value lies in the unleashing of creative expression, regardless of all the barriers of nationality, origin and economics. That is how civilisations are measured and identified by their successor generations and how people define themselves during their lives. If an individual feels culturally unappreciated the backlash can be politically and socially destructive.

Those of us who labour daily in the sometimes stoney fields of the arts and cultural heritage know very well why culture is important. At its best it inspires, gives people shared experience, helps them participate in local and global communities and is the medium for understanding ourselves and our ancestors. At its worst it is used to invent or emphasise identities that may have a grain of validity but are used to justify fears, divisions and brutal antagonisms. Those involved in ASfE are dedicated to championing the best attributes and disarming the worst.

Sadly, during the last decade, the worst have been exploited by political forces all too effectively, to the extent that the basic democratic pledge to look after all inhabitants, not just compliant supporters, has been undermined. Citizens are angry and are lashing out at incumbent governments and anyone outside their own personal circle. The furious revolutions of previous European eras have so far been avoided but not by much. Goodwill is conspicuously lacking between competing groups, most of which think of themselves as victims, either of history or circumstance. Festivals, in all their visions to include audiences in their discussions of the major issues of our times, understand the importance of tackling current pressures.

In its gentle way, A Soul for Europe tries to set a different example to those political and official operators attending. Perhaps because it is about individuals, not representatives with labels, the pervading offer is friendship, based not on job description or national interest but on affection for each other (however much we can irritate ourselves). Often we have forgotten exactly where we all live or what our job is – and if we are told, the information soon slips away as our real interests float to the surface. I'm not sure ASfE’s founders Nele Hertling and Volker Hassemer ever thought of ASfE like this but I am starting to imagine it as a vastly expanded version of Plato's Symposium: convivial, argumentative and without hierarchy. If words do not quite express it, listen to Leonard Bernstein's depiction of it in his Serenade, a work I don't think our violinist participant this year, Lisa Batiashvili, has recorded – but I wish she would.

by Simon Mundy

Read more about the trajectory of the Festival Cities Initiatives and the EFFE Seal for Festival Cities and regions here.

Simon Mundy, Kathrin Deventer, and Ana Benavides Otero are part of the strategy group of A Soul for Europe.