News

In 2020, the 50th anniversary of the Reykjavik Arts Festival was supposed to take place in June. In the end, they delivered 2/3 of their full programme within the year and they took the best out of this tough situation by experimenting with new ideas that attracted new audiences and brought joy to the public.

After conducting an online programme in 2020, Holland Festival was determined to present a live international festival in 2021. They achieved this goal thanks to the optimism, flexibility and resilience of the highly motivated festival team, collaborators and artists.

Krakow Film Music Festival launched new initiatives: In 2020, the new cycle 'LIVE from Studio' invited musicians to play from their homes or recording studios to help everyone #StayAtHome. In 2021, it included talks about how the film industry worked during the pandemic with speakers from all around the world.

The Locus Festival succeeded in bringing into the line up established and well-known Italian artists along with new artists who have performed to wide acclaim. The festival had great success with the audience and was very happy with the overall edition.

The 24th edition of the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival was moved entirely online. Despite of this being a challenge for the organisers, it allowed them to develop a platform that remains a great asset for the future of this festival.

The Voila! Europe Theatre Festival 2020 festival went ahead with no cancellations thanks to the resilience and dedication of the artists and the team at The Cockpit. They focused on the "liveness" of the festival in spite of the online format, as they did not want to lose the sense of community that this creates among the audience.

Although our EFFE Label MASDANZA Festival welcomed less international artists in 2020, the festival grew into a 3-week festival including an extension with new stages in the other Canary Islands.

Athens Digital Arts Festival aims to promote all aspects of digital creativity and since the beginning of the pandemic succeeded to create remarkable events. This festival hosted the first digital art online streaming festival in Greece and one of the first in Europe. It fosters local as well as international artists and communities.

The Divine Comedy not only had to fight against the adversities of the pandemic but also faced a very inestable political climax that irrevocably divided the Polish society. In Poland, theatre is more than just a space for entertainment and this festival is very much aware of this fact: It is a crucial place for building identity and community discussion.

ReMusica Festival is one of the main pillars of cultural life in Kosovo. The 2020 edition presented a new format adapted to new circumstances brought by the pandemic. Despite this, it preserved the quality of other editions and played a significant role in the promotion of local artists and composers, artistic capacity building, music education and innovation.

The Sacrum Profanum Festival has always brought together the old and the new. Their response to the pandemic was to launch PLAY KRAKÓW, which is one of the few niche streaming platforms that focus on heavily curated materials, working mostly with local partners and promoting local culture.

Grandezze & Meraviglie - Festival Musicale Estense is the longest-running early music festival in the region of Emilia Romagna in Italy. The pandemic impulsed this festival to rethink its online presence. They are aware of the value of video streaming tools, even though they recognise that recordings cannot replace live events.