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WHAT FUTURE FOR FESTIVALS?
Festivals are celebratory gatherings, offering space for exploration, debate and joy. They provide artists a chance to experiment, audiences a space to come together and everyone the opportunity to experience a moment distinct from everyday life.
The What Future For Festivals? program was part of Salzburg Global Seminar’s longrunning Culture, Arts and Society series. In an online program convened by the program’s co-moderators Ping-Ann Addo and Beatriz Garcia, emerging and established festival makers, academics and culture bearers from diverse geographic and social backgrounds considered how the pandemic has both connected festival makers in a unified struggle and underlined the disparity among festivals operating in different contexts.
This report outlines the key findings from the program’s plenary sessions and focus groups, highlighting the need for trust and solidarity across the festival sector as well as a radical reimaging of stakeholder engagement, resource management and internationalism.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE PROGRAM
• Festivals initially responded to the COVID-19 crisis by prioritizing the well-being of their immediate community—their artists, staff and audiences.
• Better-resourced festivals advocated for the arts. Less-resourced festivals struggled to survive. Resources were not sufficiently shared.
• Medium- and longer-term responses to the COVID-19 pandemic should focus on creating a more equal festival sector and a greener, more socially just world.
• In planning for the future, festivals should consider their history and relationship to the land, question the narratives of their program, cultivate empathy and trust and stand in solidarity with other festivals around the world.
More information about the all participations of the What Future for Festivals? program is available
