About Winter Edition 2023

‘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:

  • 100 EFA members; strong and long standing festivals coming from different countries in Europe and beyond,
  • More than 2.500 festivals in 45 countries registered on FestivalFinder.eu, among which 823 festivals received the EFFE Label 2019-2021 – these numbers are growing daily,
  • 800 alumni of The Festival Academy who have followed one or several training programmes,
  • 80 cities contributing and participating in the Festival Cities Initiative.

MembersAbu Dhabi Festival Ankara International Music Festival Artlink FestivalAntwerp Spring FestivalArcadiaAspendos International Opera & Ballet FestivalAudi SommerkonzerteBBC PromsBerliner FestspieleBergen International FestivalBITEF – Belgrade International Theatre FestivalBodrum Music FestivalBOZAR FestivalBratislava Music Festival Campania Teatro FestivalCistermúsica – Alcobaça Music Festival • Construction Festival • CULTURESCAPESDe 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’ItriaFlanders Festival InternationalFestival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de MéridaFestival LjubljanaFestival of Contemporary Art GogolFestFestival Udine CastelloGdansk Shakespeare FestivalGeorge Enescu International Festival and CompetitionGyörgy Cziffra FestivalHelsinki FestivalHolland Festival • Horizon 50-200 • International Antalya Piano FestivalInternational Festival Wratislavia Cantans International Izmir FestivalInternational Music Festival “Kharkiv Assemblies”Israel FestivalKhachaturian International FestivalKharkivMusicFestLeoš Janáček International Music Festival Lerici Music FestivalLes Festivals de WallonieLudwig van Beethoven Easter FestivalLviv Early Music 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, SpiritualityNorth Cyprus International Bellapais Music FestivalO. Festival for Opera.Music.Theatre.Ohrid Summer FestivalODESSA CLASSICS music festivalPrague Spring International Music FestivalRavenna FestivalRomaeuropa FestivalSarajevofest Art and PoliticsSchleswig-Holstein Musik FestivalSoNoRo FestivalSpoleto Festival Dei Due Mondisüdtirol festival merano . meranTeatro AveirenseTheatre City BudvaUsedom 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 FestivalsItaliaFestivalNorway 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 2023

Direction of the E-Magazine: Kathrin Deventer

Editing coordination: Audrey Brisack

Photograph cover: Baltic Sea Philharmonic © Peter Adamik – Usedom Music Festival

Texts: Shahidul Alam, Eric Corijn, Dominika Lasota, Simon Mundy, Danica Purg, Ragni Stoltenberg

Contributing Editor: Simon Mundy

Website: Maks vzw

Graphic design: Quasi

Publisher: European Festivals Association

With the continuous support of: Gert Naessens, Ana Benavides Otejo

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.