About Winter Edition 2022

‘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 4 months.

The European Festivals Association community

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

  • 88 EFA members; strong and long standing festivals coming from different countries in Europe and beyond,
  • More than 2.400 festivals in 45 countries registered on FestivalFinder.eu, among which 823 festivals received the EFFE Label 2019-2021 – these numbers are growing daily,
  • 730 alumni of The Festival Academy who have followed one or several training programmes,
  • 80 cities contributing and participating in the Festival Cities Initiative.

MembersAndrey Sakharov International Art FestivalsAbu Dhabi Festival Ankara International Music Festival Artlink FestivalAspendos International Opera & Ballet FestivalAudi SommerkonzerteBBC PromsBerliner FestspieleBergen International FestivalBITEF – Belgrade International Theatre FestivalBodrum Music FestivalBOZAR FestivalBratislava Music Festival Campania Teatro Festival • Castleknock Music Festival • Cistermúsica – Alcobaça Music FestivalCULTURESCAPESDe BijlokeDe SingelDivine Comedy FestivalDubrovnik Summer Festival Edinburgh International FestivalEstoril Lisbon FestivalEuropean Festival of Performing Arts Timisoara – New Romanian Drama FestivalFestival Castell de Peralada Festival della Valle d’ItriaFestival Del Maggio Musicale FiorentinoFlanders Festival InternationalFestival Internacional de Fotografía de Castilla y León, FIFCYLFestival Internacional de las Artes y la Cultura de Castilla y León, FACYLFestival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de MéridaFestival LjubljanaFestival of Contemporary Art GogolFestFestival Udine CastelloGdansk Shakespeare FestivalGeorge Enescu International Festival and CompetitionGyörgy Cziffra Festival • Helsinki Festival • Holland FestivalInternational Antalya Piano FestivalInternational Festival Wratislavia Cantans International Izmir FestivalInternational Music Festival “Kharkiv Assemblies”Israel FestivalKhachaturian International Festival • Klanglichter Festival • Leoš Janáček International Music Festival Les Festivals de WallonieLudwig van Beethoven Easter FestivalMacerata Opera FestivalMachol Shalem Dance HouseMalta International Arts FestivalMersin International Music FestivalMITO SettembreMusica FestivalMittelfestMosel MusikfestivalMüpa BudapestMusic Biennale ZagrebMusic Festival in Belém – Dias da MusicaNasimi Festival. Poetry, Arts, Spirituality • North Cyprus International Bellapais Music Festival • O. Festival for Opera.Music.Theatre.Ohrid Summer FestivalPrague Spring International Music FestivalRavenna FestivalRomaeuropa FestivalSarajevofest Art and PoliticsSemana de Música ReligiosaSoNoRo FestivalSpoleto Festival Dei Due Mondisüdtirol festival merano . meranTeatro AveirenseTerras sem SombraTheatre City BudvaThe International Festival of Arts Named after P.I. TchaikovskyUsedom Music Festival Utrecht Early Music FestivalValley of Arts FestivalVarna Summer International Music FestivalVilnius FestivalWonderfeelYerevan Perspectives International Music FestivalAssociation of Irish Festival Events (AOIFE)Bulgarian Festivals AssociationCzech Association of Music FestivalsFederation of Music Festivals in FlandersFestivals EdinburghFinland FestivalsFrance FestivalsItaliaFestivalMusik i SydNorway FestivalsRotterdam FestivalsSerbian Festivals AssociationSicheslav Festival Association “ArtEthnoFest” Spanish Association of Classical Music FestivalsSweden FestivalsEuropean Early Music Network (EEMN/REMA)IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts

Honorary MembersDarko BrlekFrans De RuiterGavin HendersonMassimo MercelliJosé Louis OcejoPiñeiro Nagy

Board MembersJan Briers (President) • Filiz Sarper (Vice-President) • Paul Dujardin (Vice-President) • Kai AmberlaFranco BellettiAlexandra BobesTamar BrüggemannSophie DetremmerieThomas HummelKatie PatersonFrancesco Maria Perrotta

Publication date: January 2022

Direction of the E-Magazine: Kathrin Deventer

Editing coordination: Audrey Brisack

Photograph cover: Gdansk Shakespeare Festival © Dawid Linkowski

Texts: Els Dietvorst, Ana Carla Fonseca, Gundega Laivina, Amanda Lind, Sergey Smbatyan, Bartosz Szydlowski

Contributing Editor: Simon Mundy

Website: Maks vzw

Graphic design: Quasi

Publisher: European Festivals Association

With the continuous support of: Gert Naessens, Ana Benavides Otejo, Agnes Bruisma, Lucie Mentalechta, 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 for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.