News

The results of EFFEA Call #4 are now out: 50 residencies will be supported by the third round of the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA), an initiative of the European Festivals Association (EFA).

Next to its musical, art, children, and culinary goals, Into the Great Wide Open aims to become a fully circular and climate-positive festival, and using this organisational transition to accelerate the larger transitions towards a more sustainable world.

There is a boundary between the old and the new, the usual and the change: each lived process is marked by rites of passage or events that disrupt them with shifts and innovations. These festivals explore different passages, challenging and reinventing them as a new year approaches.

Playful, twisted, emerging and re-emerging perspectives get centre stage, whether hanging from a circus thread, echoing sounds through cities, or backed by decades of history. Here you can find the festivals that highlight emerging artists and their performative perspectives.

New films, new techniques, and stories to be told: film festivals are places where young talents, industry professionals and audiences meet to look at realities through different eyes and lenses. From South UK to Poland, Greece and France, here are some film festivals highlighting independent, young filmmakers as the year reaches its wrap.

As daylight dims down and winter fades its colours with puffs of cold winds, theatres open their doors and their stage lights. Cherishing community gathering around a stage or unusual places and supporting artistic research, here we collect theatre festivals running until the final curtain call of the year.

Literature binds together festival communities to discover, to listen, get inspired, reflect and enjoy being transported by words and worlds. Here are the festivals that create a bridge between book industry professionals and the readers with book presentations, workshops, and author meetings, ready to dive into stories.

EFFEA Stories: a journey through the residencies that explored how culture's spheres and evolutions shape our approaches to nature, and vice versa. From community relationship with food and traditions to Land Art, led-light mycelia and installations, let's give the floor to these intricate natural and artistic evolutions.

We are delighted to announce that festivals can apply for the brand new EFFE Label 2026-2027. The EFFE Label is Europe’s quality stamp for remarkable arts festivals showing their engagement in the field of the arts, community involvement and international openness.

EFFEA Stories: a journey through the residencies that explored connections through movement, diving into patterns of bodily movement through geographical and social spaces. From choreography to improvisation, staged or collaborative experiences, among performers or stretching the performative sphere embracing the audience - let the dances begin, embodying their stories.

EFFEA Stories: a journey through the relationships we weave with people, places, and senses of belonging - exploring how we relate through disruption, displacement, reconnection, and reimagination.

In this spirit, we highlight five Stories from the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists - EFFEA’s residency programme

The fourth European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists - EFFEA call for festivals to support emerging artists is open. EFFEA empowers festivals to collaborate across borders and join forces in supporting artists at the stage of expanding their international careers. Submit your residency proposal by 3 November 2025.