The role of an event as a mini-society with a temporary timeframe has special characteristics. On the one hand, we are flexible, creative and adaptable, and we can evolve every year to keep up with developments. On the other hand, our temporary nature also makes us vulnerable and we have to rebuild our event each time to create a new edition and we can be measured against the latest standard.
We see that as ESNS, we can play three roles in three different areas as a mini-society in the transition to a sustainable society.
- As a showcase festival, we are a stage for talent, solutions and stories.
- We are more than a stage, we want to create space and use our festival as a place to develop and test innovations. We also run our own initiatives that fit into our vision of a sustainable ecosystem.
- As a festival we can also actively question and push for progress and encourage people to take steps together. Or to make statements and speak out about their importance.
The domains consist of the places where we do justice to the impact.
- This could be in the realisation of our own event.
- The impact in the European music sector that we address and work with at our event and throughout the year.
- And the impact on society, in the city of Groningen, where ESNS physically takes place every year, and push to share our experiences with various ministries and other municipalities in the Netherlands, and can be copied in other countries.
The design of the model you see below is initiated as a tool to generate ideas about what we can do, or to indicate in which category a project fits, in order to correctly identify the goal and the target group.
The framework works for both our sustainability programme and our diversity and inclusion programme. We have developed this framework over time in collaboration with other festivals and by co-initiating Innofest, an innovation platform that uses festivals as a testing ground for innovations for a sustainable future and social world, together with Into the Great Wide Open and Welcome to the Village.