Malta enters into European festivals hub

ARC Research and Consultancy has recently been set up and is led by Davinia Galea as Managing Director. The company has been appointed as the Maltese partner, the hub for a new European platform, a project initiated by the European Festivals Association (EFA), which is a network of more than 100 festivals from 44 countries.

The project is co-financed by the European Commission and is called Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe (EFFE). It aims to reward European cultural and arts festivals for their artistic value, their outstanding contribution to European cultural life and their sustainable impact on societal development.

Each of the European Union’s 28 Member States has a hub, its own contact point to promote the EFFE platform. Hub experts will select their country’s candidates for the quality Festival Label. A Festival Award for excellence will go to a small number or trend-setting festivals selected by an international jury.

The hub essentially promotes the EFFE platform among artists, festivals, businesses and policy-makers, encourages festivals to apply and establishes a group of Festival ‘hub experts’ to evaluate applications.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Davinia Galea specified that “Malta is involved as it is one of the 28 EU countries. Festivals apply, they are evaluated, and festivals are accredited or not   accordingly, each country will go through the same process.”

She added that the EFFE Platform is a programme for festivals that are recognised by their peers and the European Union for their outstanding quality.

“The label recipients and award winners benefit from increased visibility, new networking opportunities, further involvement of festivals in the artistic community, and recognition for their outstanding values. Festivals that have these qualities will receive the label or award.”
Galea added that the application criteria for the festival are rather broad, and that all events are eligible as long as they conform to a particular set of criteria. Namely, they would need to focus primarily on the development, presentation and/or participation in arts and culture; have a programme conceived, produced, curated, marketed and presented as an integrated package and occur within a defined area/region and within a defined period of time.

Ultimately, all applicants who see themselves as festivals that meet the criteria are invited to apply, all genres of the arts are applicable including: visual arts, architecture, digital arts, inter/multidisciplinary, music, literature, photography, design, applied arts, dance, opera, theatre, film, heritage.

A meeting and workshop will shortly be announced for those festivals interested in applying for this prestigious label and award.  More information may be found from www.effe.eu or contact the Malta Festival Hub by writing to [email protected]