IFEA Europe

Last week's disaster during the Love Parade in Duisburg once again brought crowd management and safety issues to the top of the industry agenda. While we're waiting for the official report on what actually went wrong as 20+ spectaters were killed, one fact is clear: More than 1,4 mio. people were let through narrow passageways into an area that could - legally as well as physically - hold no more than 250,000 people.

News reports have also revealed that somewhere in the "system" of police, city officials, and organisers, someone anticipated the danger, but nobody reacted on warnings. The accident report will probably reveal a combination of ignorance,carelessness, lack of clear responsibilities, and other flaws along the way.
Protesters in Germany have already named "greed" - the desire to create a large turnover - as the underlying cause of the incident.

Have events become too big, too unmanageable? Are organisers really driven by greed? Are cities driven by competition and excitement about "branding opportunities" to a degree that sets aside careful, deligent, and clear thinking? All too clearly, and on the saddest possible background, the Duisburg disaster reminds us that no matter how excited we may be about our industry and all its good intentions and purposes, we must never forget the dangers and responsibilies that go with it. "The bigger the better" holds only limited truth.

The disaster also underlines the importance of sharing of "best practice". City officials, organisers - and, for that matter police and other authorities - may easily, as human beings, be carried away by the excitement and enthusiasm of city celebrations, and may easily fall into a state of optimism prior to events. Thus, when meeting and sharing with other organisers, it is important that we recognize the need to set aside our general excitement for (and likely reason for being in) the industry, remain calm and realistic, and are willing to share our mistakes. Audiences come to enjoy, celebrate, and have a party. As organisers, it is our responsibility to ensure that they can do so in safe environments.

Indeed the opportunity to sharing not just the excitement, artistic visions, and great marketing ideas, but also the flaws - whether big or small - would be just one more reason for you to come to the IFEA Europe Annual Conference in Copenhagen in September.

IFEA Europe sends sincere condolences to the Duisburg victims and their families. May we all learn from what went so terribly wrong.

Allan Xenius Grige

The EU has published new application deadlines for financial support of festivals.

Under Stand 1.3.6, Support to European cultural festivals, grants are allocated by the European Union to promote, within European festivals, "the circulation of cultural works by giving access to non-national European cultural works to the largest possible audience, promoting intercultural dialogue encouraging exchanges of experience through the mobility of European professionals in the cultural field". Projects duration should be maximum 12 months.

Additionally, under the same strand, support is available for "Framework partnership (3 years) for European cultural festivals".

The co-financing targets, within the Festival, only costs related to the European dimension of the action. Thus, the following costs are taken into account: Costs related to the presentation of European non national works, Travel and accommodation costs for professionals and amateurs accompanying a European non national work, Fees for artists performing in European non national works, Costs relating to the organisation of workshops between European professionals, Costs relating to the development, translation, printing and dissemination of the official catalogue and brochure, Communication costs. The grant is limited to maximum 100 000 EUR maximum per edition and to maximum 60 % of the total eligible costs.

For further information, conditions, and deadlines, go to http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/culture/funding/2010/index_en.php

Four major industry conferences endorsed or hosted by the IFEA are coming up:

In just a few weeks, August 18-22, International Events presents an extraordinary summer symposium and “Behind the Scenes” of five world-class festivals in Edinburgh:  The Edinburgh International Festival, world-famous for the best in classical artistic programming; the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, 60th Golden Jubilee, with a spectacular massed pipes and drums performance against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh Castle; the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival; Edinburgh International Book Festival, the largest book festival of its kind, with 700 world-class authors and thinkers; and Edinburgh Art Festival, featuring the most exciting and intriguing artists of the modern and contemporary visual arts world.

A full lineup of professional development workshops, panel discussions, on-site tours, and networking sessions feature leading international experts from Edinburgh and abroad.  Speakers from the Edinburgh Festivals include Lady Susan Rice: Managing Director, Lloyds Banking Group Scotland and Chair of Edinburgh Festivals Forum; Faith Liddell: Director of Festivals Edinburgh; Joanna Baker: Managing Director, Edinburgh International Festival; Major General Euan Loudon: Chief Executive and Producer, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo; and Kath Mainland: Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Other speakers are Joe Goldblatt, PhD, CSEP: Professor and Executive Director, International Centre for the Study of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh; Hannah McGill: Artistic Director, Edinburgh International Film Festival; Donald Smith: Director, Scottish Storytelling Centre/Scottish International Storytelling Festival; Simon Gage: Director, Edinburgh International Science Festival; Sara Grady: Children & Education Programme Director, Edinburgh International Book Festival; and Susanna Nicklin: Director Literature, British Council. For more information and registration, go to www.internationaleventsltd.com/edinburgh/

On September 8-10, the IFEA Europe Annual Conference, "FESTIVE ROADS TO RECOVERY", will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally scheduled for April this year, but postponed on a few days' notice due to the ash cloud flight ban situation, the new conference dates coinside with two major Copenhagen events; the My World IMAGES festival, and the Nordic    conference Music Days. Thus, it has been possible to create an extra, exciting "layer" to the IFEA Europe conference, allowing for a series of panel discussions, workshops, walk-and-talks, and other fora in which exchange can take place between IFEA delegates and a number of visiting producers and artists from, in particular, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Furthermore, the programme shall focus also on the economic impact of cultural festivals and events in general - and in particular as means to recover from local, regional, or national recession - and feature a number of best practice presentations in areas such as sponsorship/funding, programming, organisation, and marketing.  In addition, the programme includes a number of social activities featuring Copenhagen's nightlife and on-site participation in some of the My World IMAGES events.

See the current programme here:  Conference programme 2010

Immediately following the IFEA Europe annual conference, IFEA Europe co-hosts the 8th "Journeys of Expression" researchers' conference at Copenhagen Business School. Initiated and managed by Leeds Metropolitan University's department of Tourism and Cultural Change and the CBS institute for Tourism and Cultural Management, more than 30 researchers will present resent findings on the festival and event industry world-wide.

Last, but not least, the IFEA World conference in St. Louis, Missouri, will take place September 16-19. The International Festivals & Events Association Foundation is pleased to offer an exciting opportunity to assist students, new professionals and financially challenged events in attending the IFEA's Annual Convention & Expo through their Foundation Scholarship Program. Each year, the IFEA Foundation will make available sixteen Legacy Scholarships to those who meet the qualified criteria. Criteria for each Legacy Scholarship is different, so be sure to look at each one to find the one that fits you best. If you are interested in applying for an IFEA Foundation Legacy Scholarship, Deadline for Application: Monday, August 2, 2010. For more details, go to www.ifea.com

The latest edition of IFEA's world-wide "i.e. magazine" features interesting stories about event industry gatherings in Kenya, Singapore, and elsewhere.

Download the international news section here: IFEA Worldwide news

According to recent news from Culture Action Europe, the European Commission published its long-awaited Green paper entitled ‘Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries’. Aimed at the elaboration of a dedicated EU action plan for the cultural and creative industries, it also demands enhanced Member States’ policies in that field - at all relevant levels of governance, and a stronger coordination between them.

An important basis for the appearance of the ‘cultural and creative agenda’ at EU level was certainly the ‘Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs’ adopted in 2000. Aimed at boosting European economy and create employment, it articulated its action around innovation and knowledge-based growth - with sustained focus on education.
In the past decade, several initiatives were launched, and a number of documents and declarations prepared, negotiated, and adopted. Starting with the 2006 KEA report on ‘The Economy of Culture in Europe’ that seeks to legitimate the ‘cultural and creative industries’ paradigm at EU level, and offer key data on their contribution to Europe’s economy, followed by the 2007 Council Conclusions on the ‘Contribution of the cultural and creative sectors to the achievement of the Lisbon objectives’ and the 2007 Communication on a ‘European agenda for culture in a globalizing world’ which was based on the findings of an intergovernmental working group (Open method of Coordination) on the cultural and creative industries. Later, the 2009 European Year of Innovation and Creativity aimed at raising the profile of ‘creativity’ at EU level and at positioning cultural and creative industries in this new policy field. Last, but not least, the 2009 KEA report on ‘The Impact of Culture on Creativity’ that focuses on ‘culturebased creativity’ and that demands the broadening of ‘creativity policies’ to new sectors such as the arts, education, research, science, etc.

If this list is impressive, the road ahead is still more than rocky. A good example is the process that led to the adoption of the EU 2020 strategy earlier this year. If creativity appeared in the original EC consultation document, that launched the negotiation of the strategy, all references to creativity, culture, or cultural and creative industries disappeared from the final framework document. There are no references either in the operational guidelines of the strategy, despite the efforts of a couple of Member states, namely Poland and France. This illustrates once again the difficulty for culture and cultural industries concerns to make their way into other policy fields, or to be integrated on an equal footing in overarching economic or social agendas. This also considerably weakens DG EAC’s position, which faces important challenges at the time of defending its positions in a transversal way. This demonstrates once again the balance of power within the European Commission and the Council of the EU; a balance of power that is often mirrored at national level, when looking at the relationships between Culture Ministries and their economic counterparts.

Whilst it is not uncommon for festivals to have an Artist-in-Residence creating artistic content, a “Geek-in-Residence” is to be appointed by Festivals Edinburgh, as part of a two year, £300,000 project to harness and lead new digital developments for the benefit of its twelve member festivals, their audiences and participants.

The Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab is headed by Rohan Gunatillake and funded by Creative Scotland’s National Lottery Fund. It aims to be an enabling project, which will help the different festivals to work with technologists, artists, audiences and digital communities. The purpose of such collaborations will be to develop and create prototype digital and technological tools that can improve the festival experience for audiences and participants.

» Read the full article by Thom Dubdin in 'The Stage'.

Check out the July issue of IFEA World's International Events (ie-)Magazine.

You get the best experience if you opt for the full screen option.

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LinkedIn’s primary function as a networking tool is to map your connections to other people.  In other words, if you wish to get in touch with somebody whom you don’t know yet personally, LinkedIn is your tool that finds people in your existing network (1st degree) who could help you to get connected to this person.

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