Group of people seated around tables in a large room with graffiti art on the wall and a detailed city map spread out on the floor, listening to a standing speaker giving a presentation.

40th YES Group seminar

It’s time to register for the annual YES Group Seminar at Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2026 in Groningen – two days dedicated to sharing experiences, exploring lessons, and strengthening the network of Europe’s festival safety community. It is open to YOUROPE members and invited guests.

The event marks the 40th YES Group Seminar and opens with Festival Season 2025 Review: What Kept Us Awake at Night?, a reflection on the past summer’s most relevant incidents, trends, and dilemmas. From there, participants will continue with What Went Wrong, When, and Why?, an interactive session that looks at an incident from 2025 and the wider lessons learned for resilience and preparedness.

The presentation of the brand new 3F Toolkit on Weather Management and Resilience is followed by a cross-role dialogue where production, technical, and communication leaders explore blind spots in regard to “working with the safety people” from various perspectives.

The second day continues with Front-of-Stage Barrier Design: When Layout Becomes Lifesaving, a deep dive into what’s going on in front of the stage, followed by a session on Coordinating Decision-Making in a Showstop, where participants map control chains and test command structures. Later sessions address Drones & Event Safety (covering regulation, detection, and practical use) and a session on the use of AI in planning and communication.

The seminar traditionally includes the presentation of the nominees for the Event Safety Award category of the European Festival Awards 2025 (taking place in the evening of Wed January 14th).

Join festival professionals, safety experts, and peers from across Europe for two days of knowledge exchange, practical tools, and inspiring discussions on making events safer, smarter, and more resilient.

Please find the full program and seminar schedule here.

📍 Groningen, The Netherlands
📅 January 14–15, 2026

Registration is open. If you don’t have the link, but feel entitled to register, please reach out to the YOUROPE office.

Related Projects

{"error_text":"Error 400. Couldnt load any more Projects.","template":"festival","loadmore":false,"args":{"current":{"post_type":"project","nopaging":true,"relationship":{"id":"know_how-project","id_field":"ID","direction":"from","items":[10913],"reciprocal":false,"to":null},"ignore_sticky_posts":true,"no_found_rows":false,"post_status":"publish","orderby":"date","order":"DESC","comments_per_page":"50","error":"","m":"","p":0,"post_parent":"","subpost":"","subpost_id":"","attachment":"","attachment_id":0,"name":"","pagename":"","page_id":0,"second":"","minute":"","hour":"","day":0,"monthnum":0,"year":0,"w":0,"category_name":"","tag":"","cat":"","tag_id":"","author":"","author_name":"","feed":"","tb":"","paged":1,"meta_key":"","meta_value":"","preview":"","s":"","sentence":"","title":"","fields":"all","menu_order":"","embed":"","category__in":[],"category__not_in":[],"category__and":[],"post__in":[],"post__not_in":[],"post_name__in":[],"tag__in":[],"tag__not_in":[],"tag__and":[],"tag_slug__in":[],"tag_slug__and":[],"post_parent__in":[],"post_parent__not_in":[],"author__in":[],"author__not_in":[],"search_columns":[],"suppress_filters":false,"cache_results":true,"update_post_term_cache":true,"update_menu_item_cache":false,"lazy_load_term_meta":true,"update_post_meta_cache":true,"posts_per_page":12}},"max_num_pages":0}
Panel discussion at a festival with five individuals seated on stage, stage lights above, and a backdrop screen displaying

3F: Future-Fit Festivals