STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

1.2. Street Festivals Today
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Street Artists in Europe
There are a very large number of street festivals across Europe. Every country in the EC holds at
least one festival that features street artists alongside indoor performing or visual or multimedia
arts; a few countries do not have a festival dedicated purely to street arts, but around half have
more street festivals than they could count easily, with new ones added every year. France has
many more street festivals than any other European country and the scale and ambition of some
of the festivals there is impressive. Artists perform predominantly at festivals in their own
countries, though international touring is growing. Some large-scale companies have only
survived because they are able to work a pan-European circuit, because of the scale and cost of
their shows.
1.3. Annual programme of Street Arts
It is clear both from festival organisers and artists, that there exist few opportunities for
professional companies to get work outside of the festival (summer) season. In Britain, there is
now a significantly higher use of street artists for traditional festive occasions – Easter,
Halloween, Christmas and New Year and Christmas (again, usually at a festive occasion).
France is pioneering the use of street shows at small events throughout the year, especially
connected to shows being presented where there are Creation Centres. This is partly in order to
spread the number of working months that artists are able to get paid work, and also to
encourage audiences to come to see different street arts shows away from a festival context.
Networks of promoters and artists are being established in hubs around towns and cities, whose
aim is to maximise the opportunities for artists to tour around a locality, establish workshop
activity and interventions in local towns and villages. Much of this is being undertaken as part
of a three year long initiative in France entitled Le Temps des Arts de la Rue.
1.4. Street arts/community arts
In several countries, community arts (defined as artists working directly with communities on
creative projects of interest and relevance to those communities, rather than to an artists’
agenda) is thriving and growing. Respondents to the questionnaires describe spending part of
their year working on projects in a variety of media with local people, including developing
local festivals and parades, alongside their professional street performance timetable.
2. Festivals use of artists
Festivals are organised in the main by independent non-profit creative individuals and
organisations or local government departments, or by individuals contracted to a local
government body with the purpose of running a festival.
The artistic policy of festivals is very varied and suits the artistic aims and purposes of the
artistic directors or their management committees. All festivals programme a selection of the
following, in varying proportions:
(a) existing street arts performance and installation work, that the festival ‘buys-in’ for a
particular time;
(b) unique site-specific professional performance/installations created especially for the
festival, that will be designed to enhance particular local architecture or landscape;
PE 375.307