EFFE/Turkey > About

We at EFFE - Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe - know that festivals need visibility and exchanges. One way to guarantee this is to make sure everyone knows which festivals are doing the most exciting and innovative work. We also need to create a coalition between festivals that share similar ambitions to get their audiences thinking about the world they live in. Europe is a vibrant cultural space, and we want everyone to know it!

The European Festivals Association (EFA), an ever-expanding umbrella group for festivals in Europe and beyond, thought it was time to focus more single-mindedly on Europe’s diversity and creativity.

EFFE is a result of many years of intense collaboration with the European Commission and European Parliament. The EFFE Platform answers a project call launched by the European Commission and the European Parliament. Thanks to EFA’s past and present active engagement in Europe’s cultural policy development and thanks to its broad membership, the European Commission gave EFA the mandate to set up a new implementing organisation for this pilot project on the long term. It was launched in 2014 by the European Commission’s Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.

The first of EFFE’s initiatives is a quality label. This label is given to festivals with an artistic commitment, involvement in their local communities and a European and global outlook. National experts assess their country’s applications and see if they meet the three criteria. An international jury will also give awards to the most adventurous and exciting festivals. Labels and awards will be announced and a multimedia festival guide launched in autumn 2015 at a gala at one of Europe’s greatest festivals.