The European Festivals Association, in co-operation with Theorem and various partners from the field, has set up a training programme for young festival managers. The European Atelier is a management programme especially designed for young festival operators, with a special focus on those who are working in the programming department or who have ambitions to become involved in programming and programming related issues within a festival. It is set up as a workshop to experience high-level vocational training in the field of festival 'programming' management. About 40 young festival managers will meet for five days to work in topical-based working groups, attend lectures and debates, learn from case studies and implement practical activities. Outstanding top professionals such as Gerard Mortier, Director of the Opéra National de Paris, former General Director of the Salzburger Festspiele and first Intendant of the RuhrTriennale, and Bernard Faivre d’Arcier, former longstanding Director of the Festival d’Avignon confirmed their participation and will stay for some days to share their rich professional experience with the students, as will Nele Hertling, spokeswoman of the Berliner Konferenz and Director of the “Berlin Artist Program” of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), Gavin Henderson, Principal of Trinity College of Music in London, Artistic Director of the Dartington International Summer School and former EFA President, Darko Brlek, EFA President and Artistic and Managing Director of the Ljubljana Festival, Rose Fenton, co-founder of LIFT – London International Theatre Festival, Brian McMaster, longstanding Director of the Edinburgh International Festival, Tom Stromberg, director art program for the EXPO Hannover 2000, Prof. Dr. Matthias Theodor Vogt, who teaches cultural management at the University Görlitz, Steve Austin, initiator of many international cultural projects, institutions and of the Felix Meritis Foundation, teaches at the Amsterdam/Maastricht Summer University. And with many others the negotiations are still running! Next to these experience-based case studies, academics (Prof. Dr. Matthias Theodor Vogt and Steve Austin) from the cultural management field will add important knowledge from an academic point of view, to be explored in depth in different issue driven working groups Round tables, informal talks and contacts with the artists and with leading cultural institutions and arts houses located in the region create an outstanding opportunity for young festival operators to train their skills in various environments. In other words: pragmatic know-how combined with a high degree of conceptual content in the management discipline is the guideline to the training programme. The first European Atelier for young festival managers will take place in the beautiful city of Görlitz from 15 until 21 May 2006, in co-operation with Theorem and with the Institut für kulturelle Instrastruktur Sachsen (IKS) www.kultur.org. The program is also supported by the Dartington International Summer School and Felix Meritis in Amsterdam. The city of Görlitz (together with the Polish part Zgorzelec) is currently bidding for the title “European Capital of Culture”, to be attributed to a German city in 2010. Moreover, it is a city of symbolic importance for Europe with a high historical and contemporary cultural value - enough reasons to choose this location! If you are a young festival operator interested in the training and you would like to participate please read the Call for interest and let us know now!