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Festivals in Context: The Role of the Arts in Local Cultural Policy

Arts festivals have so many reasons to exist when you ask their founders and organisers. When you look at their DNA and presentation, there are countless ways they can be programmed, run, financed and engaged. The 73-year long conversation the European Festivals Association (EFA) has been having with festival-makers all over Europe and beyond demonstrates the immense diversity, yet common strength and power, festivals can have no matter their size, scope, artistic discipline or location. This report shifts the perspective of EFA’s conversation from those who run festivals to those who ‘use’ their potential: city and region makers. How do territories look at festivals and their role locally?

For some time now, EFA has been welcoming the voices and views of local and regional representatives who take care of citizens’ needs and obligations from a starting point that is different from festivals’, yet has overlapping parameters: “Arts and the artists are the matrix of each festival. As is the city and its community. There is no community without the arts. For whatever non-explainable reason,”, as we say on our website presenting the EFFE Seal for Festival Cities and Regions (EFFE stands for Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe). “Festivals and cities are Siamese twins. The need to experience the arts and culture together, the need to assemble motivated societies – urban and regional communities alike – to join together in celebration of life and creativity.

EFA is convinced about the importance of mayors and decision-makers from the local level. We are equally convinced of the value of the relationship and collaboration between a city and its arts festivals. But how do policies on the local level reflect this reality? What is the relationship and power dynamic between festivals and their territories, as defined in local policies? What are the questions and perspectives of cities and regions when they consider local festivals over the long term?

The EFFE Seal for Festival Cities and Regions conversations offer a working process, — a laboratory—for cities, regions and their festivals to look at the everevolving, multiple kinds of relationships between festivals and their local authorities.

By investing in research and policy analysis EFA aims to offer tools and resources to cities and regions to reflect on the roles festivals can play in their territories. Offering ideas, examples and questions can help decision-makers and cultural departments to explore and better understand the multiple ways festivals relate to local priorities. Cities and regions can use this work as a reference point for internal discussions, a framework for dialogue with festivals and communities, or as a basis for developing their own festival and cultural strategies and practices.

The present report is a firm starting point for this policy of practice-based dialogue. It has been researched and drafted by someone who knows from experience the practice of festivals and the cultural sector, the academic discourse on practice and policies, and the political relevance at stake when we speak about arts practices and policies.

We are extremely grateful to Elena Polivtseva for accompanying us on our journey with her analysis, thinking and writing. Together with Leonie Facius, EFA’s research trainee, this trajectory has allowed— and will continue to allow—us to dig deeper into these topics with those already involved in the EFFE Seal, as well as with those who wish to join. We appreciate the work of the cities and regions that have contributed to this research, and the time, knowledge, and perspectives they generously shared. Their input forms the foundation of this report and helps place a broader set of sectoral and political questions into context.

Festivals will stay at the heart of artistic innovation and practice while at the same time keep on serving multiple agendas. And imagine we went a step further: “What if”, in the words of Elena Polivtseva from the last paragraph of this paper, “we dared to ask not just how festivals can serve society, but how society can learn from the courage, imagination, and resilience that festivals embody?”

EFA will keep on offering a space for an incredible range of diverse realities to enrich and expand the meaning and potential of arts festivals. And so, we go on.