The role of festivals in a chaotic world

The annual arts festivals summit is a key aspect of what the European Festivals Association (EFA) does and an important moment for our members. It offers the opportunity to come together, to swap experiences and knowledge and to take stock.

It welcomes festival makers and their stakeholders – including trustees and funders – and provides a platform where they can connect, network, discuss strategy and participate in tailor-made workshops and co-creation processes.

The summit, hosted each year by a different EFA member city, is also an opportunity for members to visit a festival city, explore how it works and gain deep insights into the local context of the city and the festival hosting the event.

These annual events have taken place since 2017 and have become an important moment for festival makers across Europe.

Epicentre of activity

Edinburgh of course is an obvious choice of host city – this year’s summit took place there in April co-hosted by the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh and the City of Edinburgh Council.

As Edinburgh is renowned for its beautiful architecture, its rich literary tradition and, of course, its festivals, it is perhaps surprising that this was the first time the summit has been held there – or even in the UK – in EFA’s 73 years of existence.

Over four days, our member festivals greatly appreciated the chance to embed themselves in Edinburgh, learning about the strategies and work happening in the world’s festival city.

Based at The Hub, the home of the Edinburgh International Festival, the summit took place at the heart of the historic Old Town and at the epicentre of the activity.

A huge turnout of 215 delegates from 44 countries came together for the 25 sessions that offered many insights into festival making. Among the sessions were capacity-building workshops covering different topics such as artistic freedom; environmental sustainability; diversity and inclusion; arts and well-being; and digital and AI.

Common challenges

These common challenges are being addressed by festivals globally but the context is inevitably different between countries. But by comparing local situations and differences, we could identify shared opportunities.

Among the challenges that emerged were travel costs – of people, instruments and other performance materials – which are increasing rapidly; trading barriers which are evolving constantly; and the perennial issues around visas and work permits which still create issues for many artists and festivals.

Regarding audiences, the challenges were less about paperwork than changes in expectations and behaviours. Over the last 25 years there have been notable shifts in the way people behave.

How to maintain a balance

There is a lot more emphasis now on the visual elements of any experience; artists and festival makers are dealing with shorter attention spans; and there is a growing reluctance on the part of audiences to leave home, especially since the pandemic.

Festivals are also witnessing a lack of familiarity with previously accepted codes around some artistic genres like classical music concerts for example. Delegates discussed these sensitivities about audience etiquette (sit still, don’t take photos or look at mobile phones, don’t applaud between movements of complete works, don’t talk, sneeze, snore or cough).

In addition, pressures on audiences’ disposable income mean tickets feel expensive at a time when production costs have risen sharply.

Given all that, how can we maintain a balance of sustaining audiences and reaching a broad and inclusive range of people?

Reflecting national or social identity

There is a tendency to expect festivals to reflect the national or social identity of sections of the community. But the arts, while recognising and often celebrating those particularities, stresses its embrace of everybody. A fascinatingly broad range of topics and the perspectives from so many parts of the world was truly welcomed.

Some of the ways these difficulties could be addressed – it emerged – were through flexibility of event formats and programming, and the advantages of selling the festival experience and offering overall festival tickets.

Asking that commitment of audiences means they experience a whole range of events rather than a single performance and embeds them more deeply in the festivals’ ethos, greatly enriching their experience.

Encouraging participation

Encouraging participation, rather than just listening or watching, was strongly identified as a way to help audiences break through perceived barriers, especially for young people and those not part of traditional audience demographics. It also helps open up more classic genres to contemporary performances with interactive formats being widely explored among our membership.

Some festivals were also trialling the co-development of programmes with the audience supporting them to become partners when selling the shows and including them as ambassadors.

Creating bridges

Perhaps most importantly, the summit underlined the prominent role festivals can play – artistically and philosophically – at a time when the world is seeing the disintegration of policy and integrity.

These themes around the political role of the arts came to the fore in a workshop on artistic freedom and polarisation. There was near universal agreement among participants that artistic freedom should be (almost) absolute and that, with very few restrictions, the arts had the right be controversial and to offend against dogmatic opinions, especially those advanced by organs of the state.

EFA’s role is to support all festivals, from the very small to the very large, so they in turn can support young, vulnerable artists and deliver messages of connection and peace to the millions of audiences around the world.

Festivals are about creating bridges between people and their cultures, something our chaotic world needs now more than ever. We need a strong festival scene to show the unique power of festivals and use it.