The International Jury chaired by Sir Jonathan Mills, former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, selected 5 of the most trend-setting European festivals from a pool of 705 which were recognised with the EFFE Label 2019-2020. The audience casted the majority of its votes to EFFE Laureate Varna Summer International Music Festival, Bulgaria.
The EFFE Award winners (in alphabetical order) are:

1. Conrad Festival, Krakow - Poland
2. Festival Deltebre Dansa, Deltebre - Spain
3. Førde Traditional and World Music Festival, Førde - Norway
4. GogolFEST - Multidisciplinary International Festival of Contemporary Art, various cities - Ukraine
5. Welcome to The Village, Leeuwarden – The Netherlands

200 festival makers, artists, city representatives and European policy makers came together in BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Brussels to honour arts and artists and the role that festivals play to give them a stage.

European Commissioner for Culture Tibor Navracsics has been supportive of festivals throughout his term, ‘In supporting intercultural dialogue, the Commission relies on the ideas, networks and capacities of many partners. Bringing this diverse range of policies and projects to life would not be possible without the European Parliament, authorities and cultural institutes in the Member States as well as organisations like the European Festivals Association. We will need to continue to work together. Romeo Castellucci thanked Frie Leysen, ‘with the Kunstenfestivaldesarts - one of your remarkable inventions - you have given audiences the opportunity to think, to reflect about the act of seeing, to see the act of seeing itself, to become deeply aware of what it means to be a spectator of the complexity of the images of our time.’
Saodat Ismailova praises Dieter Kosslick for the innovation he brought to the Berlinale. He added new sections to the festival programme and found a successful balance between star attendance and the core artistic integrity of the festival. He has contributed to liberty and democracy in countries on all continents and been relentless in demanding liberation for imprisoned artists.

Jan Briers, EFA President, concludes ‘2000 festivals are on our online search tool FestivalFinder.eu with 1500 festivals having the EFFE Label. We are looking forward to further develop this ever growing alliance in the future.’

More information:
- Livestream of the Event.
- More info on the EFFE Laureates and Award winners
- EFFE Awards Salon Programme
- EFFE Awards Salon Speakers

EFFE – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe is a project by the European Festivals Association, supported by the European Commission and European Parliament.

Members of the EFFE International Jury are:
Sir Jonathan Mills – President of the EFFE International Jury, Director of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit
Mrs. Tamar Brüggemann - Co-director of the Wonderfeel festival Netherlands
Mr. George Delnon - Artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera
Mr. Peter Florence - Founder and director of the Hay Festival group, UK
Mrs. Fairouz Nishanova - Director of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Geneva
Mr. Keng Sen Ong - Founder of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA)
Mr. Haris Pasovic - Director of the Mittelfest and director of East West Centre Sarajevo
Mr. Pawel Potoroczyn - Diplomat, author, theatre, opera, film and music producer in Warsaw, Poland
Mrs. Ruta Pruseviciene - Executive Director of Vilnius Festival and General Director of the National Philharmonic Society of Lithuania
Mr. Renato Quaglia - General Manager of the FOQUS Foundation and Project Manager of the Friuli Future Forum
Mrs. Virve Sutinen - Artistic director of Tanz im August Berlin

About the European Festivals Association (EFA)
Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe – EFFE is a preparatory action initiated by the European Festivals Association (EFA), supported by the European Commission and European Parliament. EFFE brings the arts to the attention of audiences on the interactive website www.FestivalFinder.eu recognizing the work of Europe’s diverse arts festivals landscape.
The European Festivals Association’s mission is to unite and represent its member festivals across Europe and the world by contributing to the artistic life of Europe. It acts as the most important platform for arts festivals. By supporting and enabling artistic creation, production and participation, EFA and its members ensure that the human right of access to culture made a reality for all citizens. Interaction between festivals, with public authorities and the other stakeholders in the arts are central to EFA's work.

More information about EFA and its projects can be found here:
www.efa-aef.eu      www.thefestivalacademy.eu        www.festivalfinder.eu.
For interviews, please contact
Naima Delaere, EFA Communication Manager
naima@efa-aef.eu  +32 2 644 48 00