Building Resilient Festivals: Leadership training for European and Ukrainian Festival Makers

The project aimed to strengthen the skills, capacity, and long-term resilience of emerging festival leaders from underrepresented regions in Europe, with a particular focus on integrating and supp...

The project aimed to strengthen the skills, capacity, and long-term resilience of emerging festival leaders from underrepresented regions in Europe, with a particular focus on integrating and supporting Ukrainian festival professionals. Our objective was to equip participants with practical competencies in festival management, leadership, sustainability, and international cooperation, enabling them and their festivals to become more resilient, innovative, and competitive in the EU and global cultural landscape. We also wanted to amplify perspectives and experiences of target regions within the broader cultural sphere, and to foster a deeper understanding of their specific contexts/challenges. By strengthening cross-border collaboration and promoting inclusive exchange, the project ultimately aimed to empower festival makers to use their platforms as drivers of social transformation, intercultural dialogue, and peacebuilding - especially in areas affected by crisis or conflict.

The project was designed as a set of activities that focused both on in-depth capacity building, as well as sustainable long-term impact. 1) We carried out an online kick-off meeting that established the partnership, aligned expectations with participants, and set a framework for smooth collaboration. 2) We delivered a 7-day in-person “Atelier for Young Festival Managers” capacity-building programme, bringing together EU and Ukrainian festival makers with a bigger group of global festival managers for intensive peer-to-peer training, inter- and cross-sectorial exchange, community building. 3) We conducted a mid-project evaluation to gather feedback and lessons learned, assess further learning needs, guide the ongoing process. 4) Participants received continued individual mentorship from experienced experts to support the application of newly acquired skills into their own festival contexts. 5) A wrap-up session online to reflect on progress, consolidate insights, and ensure sustainability of results. 6) We developed a comprehensive knowledge-building toolkit that captures the methods, tools, experiences generated throughout the project and made it available for wider dissemination across EU cultural networks.

The project generated several concrete outputs and lasting results. It strengthened the presence and competence of grassroots festival organisations from target regions in EU and Ukraine within a European and global festival landscape, strengthening interregional and international cooperation. Participants developed a deeper understanding of each other's contexts - particularly the impact of conflict on cultural work - which will support the development of new innovative collaborations and solidarity initiatives aimed at reinforcing the festival sector across Europe and beyond. Besides the toolkit produced as part of the project, tangible outputs include a series of video recordings from the in-person Atelier’s panel discussions which are publicly accessible online, as well as articles produced by participants reflecting on their learning and experience. The project also gained visibility through press coverage in our partner media outlets in Spain. All participants furthermore joined The Festival Academy’s global Alumni community, giving them continued access to upskilling and networking opportunities such as festival visits, Labs, online sessions, and other peer exchange formats.