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Placements & Exchange

Open Call for Festivals

The Festival Academy is excited to announce a new Open Call for Host Festivals to take part in the Placements & Exchange Initiative 2026, organized in collaboration with the European Festivals Association (EFA), aimed to build strong links between our festival communities. The call invites festivals worldwide to host an international festival maker from our global Alumni community of 1000+ professionals across 100+ countries. 

Why Participate?

The goal is to foster meaningful exchange between our global festival networks. As a TFA Alumni applying for a placement/exchange, you will have the opportunity to enrich your skills through hands-on experience, while the host festival or cultural organization will benefit from your fresh perspectives as a passionate professional who will assist with ongoing projects. 

This exchange offers a true two-way learning experience. Participants will benefit from new approaches and ideas from a different geographical and/or cultural context, enrich their own festival-making practices and open the door to possible future partnerships.

The Placements & Exchange Initiative promotes extensive cooperation, networking and career development opportunities through global collaborations.

Read more about the structure, requirements, and timeline below.

Please do not hesitate to contact The Festival Academy team at info@thefestivalacademy.eu should you have any additional questions.

Structure

  • Placements can be online, in-person or have a hybrid format, depending on the host organization capacities.
  • The content and timing of the placements are open-ended.
  • They offer practical experience by working in the festival's production and/or artistic teams.
  • The minimum duration of the placement is one week.
  • For in-person and hybrid placements, the host organization ideally offers accommodation, local transport, food/per diems and insurance. 

Opportunities available

In April, we will publish a booklet that presents a selection of festivals and organisations of all disciplines that offer to host a Placement & Exchange for TFA's inspiring community in 2026.

Requirements for Alumni who would like to do a placement

  • Be member of The Festival Academy Alumni community, meaning that you have participated in at least one of our training programmes in the past.
  • Be in charge of covering the potential national or international travel costs to the location of placement, or apply for external funding to cover these.
  • Review available placements within our Opportunities Booklet (which will be published in April)
  • Select your three preferred placements.
  • Fill in the application form (stay tuned for a call which will be launched in April). A CV and a motivation letter will be required. 
  • Send off the application!

This is an ongoing open call, registrations are open all year round. However, if you are an Alumni interested in doing a placement this year, we recommend to you to apply during April-May 2026. This is to facilitate the overall organization of the program and to reserve your spot, as there is a limited number of places available.

Examples

Previous editions of the initiative have led to inspiring collaborations worldwide. Here are just a few examples:

Testimonies from participants

"The placement programme is a wonderful opportunity to immerse yourself in a festival to learn other ways to festival making than you are familiar with."

"This was the first time that I worked within a festival of such grand scale and it made me understand the importance of a good working system, communication, and leadership. It also made me realize my weaknesses and motivated me to improve in my future work."

"I was able to expand my paradigms towards festival and event management. At the placement, I had the opportunity to learn from and know more Production Managers and artists around the world and also established connections that I believe would be mutually beneficial in the future."

"It was an eye-opening and highly rewarding experience."

  1. The Festival Academy
  2. Placements & Exchange