PROGAM EUROFESTIVALS in FVG 3-4 and 5 September 2021
The evocative settings of Pordenone and Cividale del Friuli will host on 3-4 and 5 September 2021 the works of “FestivalFinder.eu (a)Live Now”, the project realised by EFA (European Festivals Association), in collaboration with:
- Italiafestival (the multidisciplinary association that has been formed by some of Italy’s most prestigious festivals since 1987),
- Publiq (the Dutch platform leader in the communication of the varied public offer for leisure and culture),
- Summa Artium (a company that promotes support for the arts from the private sector),
- Euractiv Media Network (the pan-European communication network specialising in EU policies),
- City of Bergen.
The European festivals will take part in the three-day event in the Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG).In the three-day event in Friuli will take part in addition to the mayors of the two host cities and the highest officials of the Region, also representatives of the Italian Government and the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, the European Parliament and top representatives of EFA, AGIS, ENIT, EACEAand European Festivals.
The project, supported by the European Commission’s “Creative Europe” program, through “FestivalFinder.eu”, the online search platform that allows users to discover festivals in over 45 European countries, aims to promote the languages of music, theatre, street art, dance and literature.
FestivalFinder.eu and its 2300 associated festivals involve cities, tourism associations, the press and academia with a common goal: to bring the local content of art and artistic events to the attention of a worldwide audience.
“Live” is an event that will be hosted on 3 September by the Sacred Music Festival in Pordenone and on 4 and 5 September by Mittelfest in Cividale del Friuli. It has the ambitious aim of creating a channel of interaction that can act as a mediator between festivals and interested people, allowing any kind of audience to be kept up to date about the latest events throughout Europe.
Eurofestivals@FVG includes a meeting of the Mediterranean Festival hubs focusing on the strong link between festivals and tourism, as well as on the promotion of the local territory and cultural heritage through live performances.
The Meeting Eurofestivals@FVG will promote the excellences of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region within the international project partnership, which will be enriched by the cultural offer of two important Italiafestival members: Mittelfest which is one of the most prestigious showcases of prose, music and dance in the Central European and Balkan area, and the International Festival of Sacred Music of Pordenone which is an international reference point on the themes of the Sacred and spiritual inspiration in music.
With the coordination of ItaliaFestival, Mittelfest and the International Festival of Sacred Music of Pordenone have drawn up a program to promote networking opportunities between the Board and the Assembly of ItaliaFestival members, the EFA board, the national hubs of European Festivals and the Mediterranean Festivals.
Francesco Maria Perrotta, president of Italiafestival declares: “in keeping with our Association’s tradition of favouring travelling meetings in the numerous territories that host our member festivals, we have launched yet another gamble: to host a festival in Friuli Venezia Giulia that will welcome numerous national and international guests to talk about restarting and to reaffirm the role of festivals as tourist-cultural attractions and territorial promotion. From the adhesions received, we can say that this bet has all the conditions to be considered successful. The three days in Friuli are expected to be rich in stimuli from the different experiences that will animate the debate”.
Jan Briers, president of EFAsays:”the meeting in FriuliVenezia Giulia will be an important moment with festivals, cities and international guests including the European Commission to conclude the process of launching a new initiative fostering a stronger structural link between festivals and cities: the EFFE Seal (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe). The European Festival Association and its members continue to serve as a platform for dialogue and conversation to bring maximum attention to work festivals across Europe.”
Mittelfest and the International Sacred Music Festival of Pordenone will take care of thematic itineraries, interweaving the artistic program with the cultural heritage and food &wine tradition of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, offering guests and Institutions a uniqueexperience.
Roberto Corciulo president of Mittelfest comments:”being able to host the international event of EFA during the 2021 edition of Mittelfest is the best possible recognition for the 30th anniversary of the Festival. It is a great opportunity to strengthen even more the double mission of Mittelfest: on the one hand to tell the cultural and artistic reality of the new Mitteleuropa and, on the other hand, to be a catalyst for the tourist enhancement of the FVG Region in Italy and abroad. With Mittelyoung, in fact, we have invested in the new artistic generations in a concrete way, making them become protagonists both on stage and behind the scenes”.
The panels of the Med Meeting hubs will focus on the close connection between Tourism and Festivals and between promotion of the territory and cultural heritage through live performances.
Franco Calabretto, from the artistic direction of the Pordenone International Festival of Sacred Musicaffirms: “thanks to the action of ItaliaFestival and its President, we will have in Friuli a great event that binds the territories “di ca e di là da l’aghe” in an embrace that becomes an extraordinary international showcase. What better way, continues Calabretto, to celebrate 30 years of work investigating the territories of the sacred, which the Pordenone Festival carries out by promoting young artists and always commissioning new compositions on specific themes. An inter-religious dialogue that represents a recognisable and original figure on the national scene”.
EFA, after the success of the EFFE LABEL, the European quality label for festivals committed to the arts, community involvement and international openness, launches the EFFE SEAL project.
Since 2015, more than 800 festivals across Europe have been awarded theEFFE Seal (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe), the EFFE Seal is a proposal put forward by seven cities and their respective festival communities, with the main aim of consolidating their close cooperation.
Bergen, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Ljubljana, Gent, Krakow and Rotterdam, have proposed the stipulation of a common statute, fundamental for the definition of what will be the objectives, principles and values of the project that will be based on Creativity, Sustainability, Internationalism and Resilience.
From Friuli, the number of territories in which the festivals are located is expanding. The adhesion to EFFE Seal of other realities will be bound to the respect of the Memorandum that will be signed by the cities and the European Festivals Association (EFA). Seal beneficiaries will be entitled to receive a Seal Lounge, i.e. a reserved digital space on the FestivalFinder.eu portal, through which the local authority can promote its festivals and highlight the potential of the territory to an audience of millions of people worldwide.
The Seal aims to benefit not only festivals and their territories, but also artists, residents, the public, the tourism sector, the media and politicians.