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Resources > European Festivals Association

posted on

16 May 2011

European Festivals Association

The European Festivals Association (EFA) unites distinguished music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary arts festivals from Europe and beyond since 1952. 

The European Festivals Association (EFA) connects about 100 festivals and festival associations in 40 countries. EFA members are the core element that make the Association an open, influential, international place for any festival that wants to be part of a bigger festival community.

The European Festivals Association’s mission is to unite and represent its member festivals across Europe and the world by contributing to the artistic life of Europe. It acts as the most important platform for arts festivals. EFA members take the joint responsibility that the arts are prioritised offering their platforms to bring the arts to the audiences. Access and participation in culture and the arts is a Human Right. By supporting and enabling artistic creation, production and participation, EFA and its members ensure that this right is made a reality for all citizens. Interaction between festivals, with public authorities and the other stakeholders in the arts are central to EFA's work.

EFA is a community dedicated to the arts, the artists, and audiences. EFA’s main role in the ever changing world of digitisation and globalisation is to connect festival makers so to inform, inspire and enrich the festival landscape. In this perspective, EFA is a festivals’ service provider; the oldest cultural network of European festivals. It was established to bridge the distance between organisations and all kinds of stakeholders; and to create connections. All this in function of the enrichment of a festival’s own artistic offer and its organisational opportunities.