European Festivals Association

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The European Festivals Association (European Festivals Association, EFA for short) is an umbrella organization for cultural festivals, especially classical music and musical theater , in Europe and other countries. It was founded in 1952. The seat is the Kasteel Borluu in Sint-Denijs-Westrem , Belgium.

Foundation, goals

The organization was founded in 1952 on the initiative of the conductor Igor Markevitch and the Swiss philosopher and pioneer of European integration Denis de Rougemont . The founding members included the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence , the Bayreuth Festival , the Berlin Festival , the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , the Holland Festival and the Lucerne Festival , the Munich Opera Festival , the Sagra Musicale Umbra in Perugia and the Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, the Venice Music Biennale, the Vienna Festival , the International May Festival in Wiesbaden as well as the Zurich Festival and the Besançon Franche-Comté and Bordeaux festivals.

On its website, the EFA reminds you that cultural festivals have served as a "project of unity" since the beginning of cross-border work and cultural exchange, long before the borders within the European Union were dismantled. The organization wants to promote networking, artistic quality and internationalization.

The president is the Slovenian clarinetist Darko Brlek, the German cultural manager Michael Herrmann and the Italian flautist Massimo Mercelli act as vice-presidents .

Today's member organizations

EFA currently has around a hundred festivals and national umbrella organizations from forty countries. The umbrella organizations represent the festival organizers in Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Serbia. While the focus was on Western Europe when it was founded, the activities of the EFA have extended to all of Europe and some festivals in the Middle East since the 1990s. Significant member organizations today include the traditional multi-discipline festivals Edinburgh International Festival (founded in 1947) and Festival d'automne in Paris (founded in 1972), open-air festivals such as the Chorégies d'Orange , and classical music festivals such as the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro or the Rheingau Music Festival . The organization also includes the Budapest Spring Festival , the Belgian festivals of Flanders and Wallonia , the Audi summer concerts in Ingolstadt and the Wratislavia Cantans oratorio festival in Wroclaw. Dance, drama and visual arts are also represented in the EFA, although traditionally the focus is on music and musical theater.

EFA initiated the EFFE ( Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe ) platform , operates a Festival Academy and the European House for Culture and is funded by the European Commission . It organizes networking meetings, publishes a festival guide and awards EFFE labels and EFFE awards. The organization is based in Brussels .

A comparable organization for rock music is Yourope The European Festival Association .

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Of the founding members, only the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence , the Berlin Festival and the Lucerne Festival belong to the organization today . The other festivals have either withdrawn or, like the Strasbourg Festival, have been discontinued.
  2. ^ The Festival Network since 1952. EFA website, accessed October 1, 2018.
  3. ↑ Mission statement. Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe (EFFE), accessed October 1, 2018.