About Spring Edition 2021

‘Eye-to-Eye’ is the European Festivals Association’s (EFA) Festival Quarterly. It assembles a variety of voices that speak about our society, the state of the arts and reasons why the arts exist, concepts, and moments in contemporary life. It includes articles EFA commissions and material we ask editors to provide. It reflects EFA’s journey to broaden our conversations and dig into the habitat of festivals, taking us well beyond the process of festival making.
Eye-to-Eye is published every 3 months.

The European Festivals Association community

The European Festivals Association (EFA) is a trusted alliance of festival makers representing:

  • 80 EFA members; strong and long standing festivals coming from different countries in Europe and beyond,
  • More than 2.300 festivals in 45 countries registered on FestivalFinder.eu, among which 823 festivals received the EFFE Label 2019-2021 – these numbers are growing daily,
  • 700 alumni of The Festival Academy who have followed one or several training programmes,
  • 40 cities contributing and participating in the Festival Cities Initiative.

MembersAndrey Sakharov International Art FestivalsAbu Dhabi Festival Al Bustan FestivalAnkara International Music Festival Artlink FestivalAspendos International Opera & Ballet FestivalAudi SommerkonzerteBBC PromsBerliner FestspieleBergen International FestivalBodrum Music FestivalBOZAR FestivalBratislava Music Festival Budapest Spring Festival Cistermúsica – Alcobaça Music FestivalConrad Festival CulturescapesDe BijlokeDivine Comedy FestivalDubrovnik Summer Festival Edinburgh International FestivalEstoril Lisbon FestivalEuropean Festival of Performing Arts Timisoara – New Romanian Drama FestivalFestival della Valle d’ItriaFestival Del Maggio Musicale FiorentinoFørde Traditional and World music Festival Festival Castell de Peralada Festival Castilla y Leon – Performing arts: FACYL FestivalFestival Deltebre DansaFestival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de MéridaFestival of Contemporary Art GogolFestKlarafestival (Flanders Festival International)Festival Udine CastelloFestival WonderfeelFlanders Festival Ghent (Flanders Festival International)George Enescu International Festival and CompetitionInternational Antalya Piano FestivalInternational Festival Wratislavia Cantans International Izmir FestivalInternational Music Festival “Kharkiv Assemblies”Israel FestivalLes Festivals de WallonieLeoš Janáček International Music Festival Ljubljana FestivalLudwig van Beethoven Easter FestivalMacerata Opera FestivalMalta International Arts FestivalMersin International Music FestivalMITO SettembreMusica FestivalMittelfestMosel MusikfestivalMusic Biennale ZagrebMusic Festival in Belém – Dias da MusicaNasimi Festival. Poetry, Arts, SpiritualityOhrid Summer FestivalPrague Spring International Music FestivalRavenna FestivalRomaeuropa FestivalSarajevofest Art and PoliticsSemana de Música ReligiosaTeatro AveirenseWinter International Arts Festival SochiSoNoRo Festivalsüdtirol festival merano . meranTerras sem SombraThe International Festival of Arts Named after P.I. TchaikovskyUsedom Music Festival Utrecht Early Music FestivalValley of Arts FestivalVarna Summer International Music FestivalVilnius FestivalWelcome to The Village Yerevan Perspectives International Music FestivalAssociation of Irish Festival Events (AOIFE)Bulgarian Festivals AssociationCzech Association of Music FestivalsFederation of Music Festivals in FlandersFestivals EdinburghFinland FestivalsFrance FestivalsItalia FestivalMusik i SydRotterdam FestivalsSerbian Festivals AssociationSicheslav Festival Association “ArtEthnoFest” Spanish Association of Classical Music FestivalsSweden FestivalsEuropean Early Music Network (EEMN/REMA)

Honorary MembersDarko BrlekFrans De RuiterGavin HendersonMassimo MercelliJosé Louis OcejoPiñeiro Nagy

Board MembersJan Briers (President) • Paul Dujardin (Vice-President) • Hermann Schnitzer (Vice-President) • Colm CroffySophie DetremmeriePiñeiro NagyFrancesco Maria PerrottaRuta PrusevičienėFiliz SarperJovanka Višekruna Janković

Publication date: April 2021

Direction of the E-Magazine: Kathrin Deventer

Editing coordination: Audrey Brisack

Photograph cover: The Sandman – Bergen International Festival 2019 © Thor Brødreskift

Texts: Jorge Andrade & José Capela, Kristina Borg, Frans de Ruiter, Sukina Douglas, Ada Mukhina, Jo Strømgren

Contributing Editor: Simon Mundy

Website: Maks vzw

Graphic design: Quasi and Studio Grid

Publisher: European Festivals Association

With the continuous support of: Gert Naessens, Sofía Arangüena López, Inge Ceustermans

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval devices or systems, without prior written permission from the publisher, except that brief passages may be quoted for review.

The support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and doesn’t engage the responsibilty of the European Commission or the Flemish Community for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.