Representatives of 105 festivals from all over the world celebrated this week in Peralada and Girona the Arts Festivals Summit, the annual summit of the European Association of Festivals (EFA, for its acronym in English), which, once the pandemic is over, has broken all participation records: 227 delegates arrived from 42 countries on five continents. The BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Rossini de Pesaro, Merida, Estoril, Bozar de Brussels, Zagreb... The aim is to address issues such as organisation, creativity, km 0, philanthropy or sustainability. The prescriptive role of surprising, questioning and exciting people has regained value.
Born in Switzerland when, in the midst of the reconstruction of Europe, there was a need for spaces for reflection and reunion through music, the EFA has moved to Catalonia for the first time in its 71 editions. If it was born in the spirit of Strauss-Hofmannsthal (the anti-Semitic composer and his Jewish librettist), today it maintains the pulse of innovation and multidisciplinary creation of the music, dance, theater, visual and audiovisual arts festivals of the Old Continent.
"In this sense, the spirit of the festival implies continuity, putting the focus every year on the artistic residencies and on the assumption of risks, because interruptions make no sense", says Oriol Aguilà, artistic director of Peralada.
"Inviting young creators should be something very natural", confirms Christian Kuhnt, curator of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, on the German border with Denmark. "And it is even more important to attract a young audience, because many of these institutions have the problem of an aging audience. Classical music, with its white lighting and silent atmosphere, does not interest the young person. We need to find new ways to present music and the performing arts without going against art. And this is a challenge that I love”, adds the person in charge of this competition which was founded in 1986 by an already exhausted Leonard Bernstein looking for a place of tranquility.
The Jewish composer created a young orchestra in this part of Germany that still exists and that welcomes 120 musicians from 25 countries for eight weeks with a vision of music as a link of union. The competition – 12 million euros for 200 concerts in 120 venues and 190,000 tickets – has been opened to all kinds of music. "The first thing I did when I was made manager was to bring Elton John - says Kuhnt -; I told them it's a classic. They loved it."
The summit also demonstrated the critical spirit of these festivals. "In Europe it is always said that we do not come to entertain, but to help understand the world. We are a tool for transformation, and this collides with the idea of pure entertainment that is present in many festivals in our territory", recalls Aguilà. At the same time, in a world of multinationals and investment funds, philanthropy with a soul, that of people, becomes important for these competitions.
The KlaraFestival in Brussels, also present at the Peralada summit, is, with 2 million euros (30% of patronage), very aware that its values and social impact projects are vital to attract sponsors. Its director, Joost Fonteyne, tells La Vanguardia that when the war broke out in Ukraine, it did not take long to organize programs based on Ukrainian composers or dramatic texts on the subject. “In fact, we have partnered with Cardiff for Ukraine. And with the one in Dortmund, in Germany, we created a string quartet with German and Ukrainian musicians to perform pieces written by young people against the war."
Festivals are also a tool of empowerment, both for cities and rural destinations, as they generate an imagination and become a symbol for cities, or put lost rural areas on the map.
The Alcobaça Music Festival (Portugal) diversifies its sources of income (500,000 euros) and has submitted to the EFFEA (European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists) funds, just like the Jordi Savall Festival, and thus presents jointly in three monasteries – the third in France – the young set Ministers of Pastime. "It's a pleasure to look for new travel companions, festival promoters with whom we have something to do. This positions us on an Iberian and international scale", concludes the head of marketing, Dulce Alves.
