The programme was addressed at emerging festival managers or those who have ambitions to get involved in curating festivals. Participants broadened their professional skills, widened their horizons, and developed new project ideas under the professional guidance of renowned festival managers from all over the world who shared their rich experience and guided participants throughout the 3 days.
Topic
With the challenges related to COVID-19 adversely impacting festivals globally, not least because of the ‘fear of gatherings’ – the lifeblood of festivals – serving as vectors for viruses, many festivals have adapted to online and hybrid platforms to continue serving their mission. It is now possible to imagine that online festivals will remain part of our experience integrally and/or in mixed formats in the future.
What are the possibilities and limitations of curating online and hybrid festivals? How does such curation differ from curating analogue festivals? How much does the audience experience affect the curating of (integrally or partially) online festivals?
This training looked into curating festivals be it online, hybrid,
physical, and the many mixed forms of analogue and digital that coexist; and it reflected on the
change in programming in general as a result of the
COVID-19 durational change of habits of audiences and topics of artists.
You can read the opening statement made by The Festival Academy's General Director, Inge Ceustermans, here.
Format
The Online Training sessions offered in 2020 consisted of courses including 2-3 days of training (4-6h/day) and an optional social networking moment on Friday after the training. Training courses were topic-based, focusing on different themes.
Each session included:
- Training sessions – Two days of plenary sessions per training, each day consisting of a 4-6-hours long session with a break in between
- Networking – Break-out groups of 5-6 people for socialising and connecting
- DJ sessions – An online party after the training with guest DJs from different world regions
- Taking into account different time zones: the plenary sessions will be scheduled - and some of them recorded - so people can see it at different times
Participants were guided by experts from a wide geographical, social, inter-disciplinary as well as cross-sectorial range (experts from foundations, social movements, etc) to collect a range of different experiences and strategies.
Detailed Programme
Please find the detailed programme, dated 26.11.2020, here.