5 remarkable festivals receive the EFFE Award 2019-2020
On 26 September, 24 EFFE Laureate festivals were celebrated at the EFFE Awards 2019-2020 Salon in BOZAR. 5 of them were honoured with the EFFE Award 2019-2020 and one wins EFFE’s Audience Choice. In addition, two personalities received the EFFE Lifetime Achievement Award: Frie Leysen (Founder Kunstenfestivaldesarts) and Dieter Kosslick (former Director Berlinale).
The International Jury chaired by Sir Jonathan Mills, former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, selected 5 of the most trend-setting European festivals from a pool of 705 which were recognised with the EFFE Label 2019-2020. The audience casted the majority of its votes to EFFE Laureate Varna Summer International Music Festival, Bulgaria.
The EFFE Award winners (in alphabetical order) are:
- Conrad Festival, Krakow - Poland
- Festival Deltebre Dansa, Deltebre - Spain
- Førde Traditional and World Music Festival, Førde - Norway
- GogolFEST - Multidisciplinary International Festival of Contemporary Art, various cities - Ukraine
- Welcome to The Village, Leeuwarden – The Netherlands
200 festival makers, artists, city representatives and European policy makers came together in BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Brussels to honour arts and artists and the role that festivals play to give them a stage.
European Commissioner for Culture Tibor Navracsics has been supportive of festivals throughout his term, ‘In supporting intercultural dialogue, the Commission relies on the ideas, networks and capacities of many partners. Bringing this diverse range of policies and projects to life would not be possible without the European Parliament, authorities and cultural institutes in the Member States as well as organisations like the European Festivals Association. We will need to continue to work together.’
Romeo Castellucci thanked Frie Leysen, ‘with the Kunstenfestivaldesarts - one of your remarkable inventions - you have given audiences the opportunity to think, to reflect about the act of seeing, to see the act of seeing itself, to become deeply aware of what it means to be a spectator of the complexity of the images of our time.’
Saodat Ismailova praises Dieter Kosslick for the innovation he brought to the Berlinale. He added new sections to the festival programme and found a successful balance between star attendance and the core artistic integrity of the festival. He has contributed to liberty and democracy in countries on all continents and been relentless in demanding liberation for imprisoned artists.
Jan Briers, EFA President, concludes ‘2000 festivals are on our online search tool FestivalFinder.eu with 1500 festivals having the EFFE Label. We are looking forward to further develop this ever growing alliance in the future.’
The BOZAR with its CEO Paul Dujardin opened again the doors to the truly European House for Culture for the 180 guests attending the ceremony: cities, EU representatives, festivals, artists.
More information:
Notes from the EFFE International Jury
Conrad Festival
This festival in Krakow is one of the finest literature festivals in Europe. The quality of programming, finely-tuned talent-detecting radar, intellectual gravitas and global perspective makes it a perfect symbiosis: a textbook collaboration between locals and the global community of writers, poets and thinkers.
Festival Deltebre Dansa
This festival founded by Roberto Olivan is having a big impact on and creating a real phenomenon in this little village in the southern part of Catalonia, on the delta of the River Ebro. It is accessible for a wide audience, but has become a place where professionals go for workshops and courses too.
Førde Traditional and World Music Festival
Førde Traditional & World Music Festival in Norway provides a remarkable example of excellence as well as artistic and curatorial integrity. July 2019 sees its 30th edition, Førde annually presents 300 artists in 90 acts across 30 venues in concerts, workshops, master classes, children’s events and many other endeavours. It has been a winner of Songlines’ best world music festivals worldwide and The Guardian’s top 10 festivals in Europe.
GogolFEST - Multidisciplinary International Festival of Contemporary Art
GogolFest is an incredible platform for artistic development: not only a single festival in one city but a whole movement presented in different festival formats and disciplines throughout the immense country of Ukraine. The strategic and artistic choices are exceptionally strong: contemporary, innovative, energetic, presented in a context of very limited financial means and political upheaval.
Welcome to The Village
Welcome To The Village, in Leeuwarden, northern Netherlands is a pop festival that creates an all-inclusive family feeling on its outdoor festival site. Its raison d’être is ecological and social sustainability, wrapped in an energetic 4-day music party that not only focusses on these 4 days, but also thinks about what our world will look like in five or fifty years’ time. Besides their high quality line-up (which also includes classical music, ‘world music’, visual arts, et al.), they organize DORP - hundreds of students, artists, volunteers, designers, scientists, visitors working together - which uses the festival as a testlab for innovative ideas in different areas, incl. food sustainability.
