Future Fit Festival

These are special times. The most challenging and most emotional festival season ever is behind us and we can hardly expect an easy summer in 2023. There's a lot on our plates - for the European festival industry as well as for our global society: (Post-)pandemic effects on staff, infrastructure and audience behaviour, war in Europe with big effects not only on energy prices. The transition ahead to contain climate change is still ahead of us as is the the achievement of equality and diversity behind, on and in front of our stages. And beyond all we want to be culturally relevant and economically sustainable. We have no longer than the current decade to set the path and in this process we need to answer some complex questions: What make European festivals resilient to meet the challenges of the future? What does the responsible festival of the future look like and how do we achieve that? How do tomorrow's festivals ensure that they continue to play the relevant role in popular culture and the lives of millions of young people? YOUROPE - The European Festival Association is determined to take the lead in this process and act in a pioneering role beyond its members, the wider festival scene and towards other fields of culture and global society. We will discuss these questions with some of the leading minds in the European festival scene.