Festivals: the Heart of Europe

FESTIVALS: AT THE HEART OF EUROPEAN IDENTITIES

Since the end of World War Two, festivals have spread across Europe just as monasteries and cathedrals did in the Middle Ages. Thousands of festivals now feature the most recent, marginal and cutting edge art forms. Established events like Bayreuth, founded in 1876, Salzburg in 1920 and Edinburgh in 1947, rub shoulders with the new and the ephemeral. Their diversity is extraordinary – from the most classical to cutting-edge contemporary; from elitist to popular; from huge pop and rock gatherings to micro-festivals hosted in remote villages - at the heart of European identities.

- Bernard Foccroulle, director of Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence

Festivals are often launched to celebrate a particular historical heritage, and have helped people discover art cities and their outstanding landmarks. They have met with tremendous success in southern Europe where they can attract mass tourism. Now, they are almost everywhere – north, east and west of the continent in art cities, but also in places not particularly distinguished by natural setting or historic heritage.

- Bernard Foccroulle, director of Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence

As the war ended, and while Europe mourned its millions of dead and discovered the horrors of the concentration camps and the Holocaust, cultural Europe got back on its feet by seeking to revive the bonds destroyed by war, to heal wounds, to guide people towards new dynamics of peace, cooperation and humanism. This new cultural dynamic preceded, and most likely prepared for, the political decisions that led to the foundation of the European institutions. It enjoyed another boom after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It can be said that European festivals crystallise the values underlying the civilisation from which they stem. They have had a profound influence on Europe’s cultural life, and have also contributed to new art forms and helped promote world-class creators and performers.

- Bernard Foccroulle, director of Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence

In the 1950s and 60s, traditional forms of drama and stage performance were challenged by festivals like Bayreuth, Salzburg, Glyndebourne and Aix-en-Provence, among others. Is that role now a thing of the past? I don’t think so, but forms have changed. While some festivals are tempted to concentrate on safe values, others still explore radical new forms and still others try to attract larger audiences and favour inter-disciplinarity.

- Bernard Foccroulle, director of Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence

WHY FESTIVALS?

"Why does one need a festival when so many other things are already happening? The only reason may be that a festival is more than the sum of its parts; not a repetition or simple improvement, and therefore falls out of step, reflects, and comments on what is already happening. In this way, a festival becomes - when it is a good one - a teller of stories about our cultural inheritance and the way we have to deal with it, but first and foremost it is an expert in creating meanings.”

- Denis de Rougemont, cultural philosopher and founder of European Festivals Association

"We live in a world that is changing rapidly. How can we make the tensions, conflicts and differences that are part of these rapid changes comprehensible, and learn to understand them? Art can play a big role here. Festivals connect the unknown with the known. They provide keys to unknown languages and create new possibilities for communication."

- Tillmann Broszat, festival director of Spielart, Munich (report on FIT – Theatre/Festivals in Transition)

ARTISTS CREATING CONTEXTS

Many of the great European festivals were imagined and created by artists, like Jean Vilar in Avignon and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, and many remarkable artists have created and directed festivals as part of their artistic practice. Recent examples include the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland which was conceived by the acclaimed film directors the Kaurismaki brothers, and Big Bang, a travelling international festival of music and music theatre for children which was created by the theatre and opera director Wouter van Looy.

FESTIVALS ACROSS BORDERS

Ideas of national and transnational mobility are becoming increasingly important for festivals today. Many festivals take place in multiple locations each year, within a country or across international borders, bringing the work of innovative artists to different audiences, and creating more opportunities for artists to present their work. Some festivals even take place across international borders, including NEXT festival which connects cities in France with the Belgian provinces of Flanders and Wallonia, and Manifesta, the European bienniale of contemporary art which changes location every two years.

INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASES

Major international showcases and platforms such as Ars Electronica and the Prague Quadrennial are hugely important for the development of innovative practice and international networking in the contemporary arts. They are an opportunity for artists active in a particular field to discover each others practice, learn about new trends and invent new ways of working for the future. They are also hugely important for the cities in which they take place, who gain significant social and benefits from the influx of visitors from abroad.

REIMAGINING PUBLIC SPACE

Festivals are an opportunity to bring contemporary arts outside the institutions and into public spaces, attract new and diverse audiences and creating a strong festival atmosphere in the cities in which they take place. Artists are imagining new ways of engaging with public space, including interactive and digital projects as well as more traditional forms of performance and visual art, and festivals help give a context for these kinds of projects to be presented.

POLITICAL ACTION

Many festivals take place against the backdrop of extremely difficult political and economic climates, where contemporary art dealing with controversial social issues faces criticism and censorship. Festivals play a crucial role in ensuring that challenging and provocative artists’ voices are heard. In 2014, the Argentine theatre production Golgota Picnic faced condemnation and cancellations across Europe due to its treatment of religious material, and in 2015, festival director Olivier Py threatened to move the legendary Festival d’Avignon to another city in protest at the growing support for right wing political groups in the area.

FESTIVALS FOR EUROPE: INTRODUCING THE EUROPEAN FESTIVALS ASSOCIATION

The European Festivals Association is the umbrella organisation for festivals across Europe and beyond uniting about 100 music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary festivals, national festival associations and cultural networks from 40 countries. One of its many initiatives is EFFE - Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe. On Sunday 27 September 2015 in Paris, Europe’s festival community was invited to the EFFE Award Ceremony and EFFE Community Launch to celebrate the first edition of the EFFE Labels and Awards.