Resilient, responsible, relevant, resistant – how can festivals become exactly that? The European Festival Association YOUROPE will continue looking for answers with the help of its project “Future-Fit Festivals 2.0” (3F 2.0). The association will create six central publications like an Extreme Weather Toolbox, a Fair Ticketing Guide, and a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Roadmap, alongside more interactive outputs like a Green Navigator and an internship program for BIPoC. The project succeeds 3F, which ended in December 2024.
The past few years have shown that festivals cannot be taken for granted: a record number of festivals has announced shutting down, extreme weather keeps throwing outdoor events into chaos, the cost of living crisis keeps threatening festivals’ livelihoods, and the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic can still be felt. But how can the live events industry get – and be – better?
This is where YOUROPE comes in: with the EU-funded project “Future-Fit Festivals 2.0” (3F 2.0), the association will keep spearheading the necessary transformation of the industry. The well over 120 festivals and associated members that YOUROPE represents, among them project lead Karlsruhe Marketing und Event GmbH (KME) representing YOUROPE member DAS FEST, will be at the heart of finding answers to these four key questions:
- What does the responsible festival of the future look like, and how do we achieve that?
- What makes European festivals resilient to meet the challenges of the future?
- 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?
- How do we make our festivals resistant to threats and attacks on their foundation & values?
While the first three questions already guided 3F 2.0’s predecessor 3F (2022-2024), the fourth question was added in the face of rising populist and right-wing movements that threaten democracies and free events across Europe.
Although YOUROPE is the biggest association for music festivals in Europe, it cannot master this challenge alone. To include the entire industry in the process, the organization will keep using systematic dialogue structures built during 3F to encourage exchange between creative industry professionals, audiences, artists as well as public and private decision makers.
Six central publications on sustainability, safety and diversity
To educate and guide festivals in Europe – but ultimately also in the rest of the world – YOUROPE will six create central publications:
- Extreme Weather Toolbox (2025)
- Fair Ticketing Guide (2026)
- Green Festival Navigator Tool (2027)
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Roadmap (2027)
- a publication on Crowd Management Competence Levels (2028)
- a tool to support Ukraine (2028)
YOUROPE’s working groups YES Group (YOUROPE Event Safety Group) and GO Group (Green Operations Europe) will lead the work on 3F’s focus topics of sustainability, safety, and DEI.
During the four years of the project, YOUROPE will organize many activities and projects. Among them are the popular workshops and seminars by YES Group and GO Group, plus training events on important topics like marketing and communication, as well as mental health and wellbeing. The association will conduct several pan-European surveys to gather information on the sector in general and on the 3F focus topics in particular. The results are published in the European Festival Report, which is being released annually since 2022 together with IQ Magazine. YOUROPE will continue organizing the annual European Festival Awards (EFA) at ESNS and the bi-annual European Festival Conference (EFC) in a changing location.
On top of this, 3F 2.0 will see the six annual youth exchanges and three annual internship programs for BIPoC (Black, Indigenous and people of color).
3F and 3F 2.0 publications:
- 3F Safety Report, analyzing the trends in event safety and security between 2022 and 2024
- Festivals for Ukraine Toolkit on raising funds and awareness for social causes
- Diversity & Inclusion Toolset to make festivals more diverse and inclusive
- European Green Festival Roadmap 2030 on sustainable production measures
- 2024 European Festival Report (EFR)
- 2024 after-season festival survey (results in EFR)
- 2024 Festival Fan Survey with Höme (results in EFR)
- 2023 European Festival Report (EFR)
- 2023 after-season festival survey (results in EFR)
- 2022 European Festival Report (EFR)
- 2022 after-season festival survey (results in EFR)
- 3F Press Kit
- 3F Communication Kit
- 3F Campaign Guide
3F & 3F 2.0 communication campaigns:
- #WeVoteforEurope – European Parliament elections, 2024
- Life is Live – youth mental health and the importance of real experiences, by YOUROPE member EXIT Festival, 2024
- Festivals for Ukraine fundraiser, 2023
- #ImpossibleWithoutYouth – International Communication Campaign, 2022
3F & 3F 2.0 training events and conferences:
- European Festival Summit in Karlsruhe, Germany, 2024 (read this report for the results)
- European Festival Conference #5 on Pag Island, Croatia, 2023
- 1st seminar on diversity, equity and inclusion at festivals, Paris, France, 2024
- 10th GO Group Workshop, Bratislava, 2024
- 9th GO Group Workshop, Barcelona, 2023
- GO Group @ Green Events & Innovations, 2022 (panels, speakers, workshops on event sustainability)
- YES Group seminars @ ESNS, 2023 and 2024
- YES Group @ IBIT Fachtagung on Event Safety, 2022 and 2023 (panels, speakers, workshops on event safety & security)
- YOUROPE @ Festival Playground, 2022, 2023 and 2024 (panels, speakers, workshops on communication & marketing)
- YOUROPE @ Future Of Festivals, 2022 (panels, speakers, workshops on mental health)
Other 3F events
Contact
Holger Jan Schmidt
Phone +49 228 20 70 80 5
Disclaimer:
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
