PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 20 May 2015

Europe’s finest festivals honored with EFFE Label 2015-2016

EFFE is proud to announce the results of Europe’s finest festivals honored with the EFFE Label 2015-2016. Following a process of intense evaluation from national experts to an international jury, 761 festivals from 31 countries now belong to the first generation of EFFE Label recipients. You can access all EFFE Label festivals at www.effe.eu. The online Guide to Europe’s festivals 2015-2016 will be available in early summer.

EFFE – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe, initiated by the European Festivals Association, is the portal for citizens and for professionals to discover and get involved in Europe’s festivals.  It is a new international festival platform connecting festivals that are deeply committed to the arts, their communities and European values. The platform invites audiences worldwide to access up-to-date festival information and participate in festivals across Europe. Above all EFFE recognizes the immense excellence of these festivals in their daily local work all across Europe.

Following an open call to apply for the EFFE Label 2015-2016 launched in summer 2014, hundreds of festivals submitted applications to demonstrate their devotion to three EFFE Label criteria: artistic commitment, community involvement and a festival’s international and global outlook. National experts, appointed by EFFE’s national contact points reaching out to festivals in each country, scored the applications and presented the findings to an international jury which nominated the EFFE Label 2015-2016 recipients in May 2015.

“We are glad to be able to say that the EFFE Labels 2015-2016 make up the first generation of EFFE Label recipients that stand for artistic quality and have a significant impact on the local, national and international level. The Label recipients represent 31 European countries and offer a wide range of genres and activities to their audiences,” said chairman of the EFFE international jury Vincent Baudriller, Director of Lausanne’s Theatre Vidy and former director of the Festival d’ Avignon, ”from world-renowned dates in the cultural calendar, to eclectic events known only to switched-on insiders, an extremely wide variety of festivals are included.”

All EFFE Labels 2015-2016 will be presented in an online and print guide from early summer. This unique result extends the reach of European festivals across borders, creating new bridges amongst the festival community and new access of audiences about festivals coming up. The online guide will be launched in summer.

The President of the European Festivals Association, Mr. Darko Brlek said, “I am glad that EFA offers its network to a new platform that has such backing from the festival sector to really put audiences directly in touch with such an array of festivals. EFFE made this happen by calling together a unique festival community – a true gift to European culture and its incredible diversity which lives in Europe’s festivals.”

More news about the EFFE Labels 2015-2016 is available at www.effe.eu.