Festivals - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

An opposite case is L’Automne de Paris, a much stretched, almost 3 months long affair,
more an internationals season then a compact festival, with featured productions running
along all the standard venues and companies. It is meant as an extra programming
layer to what already exists in Paris and not only in terms of domestic production
but also in addition to a steady international programming such as Odeon, Théâtre de
la Ville, Bobigny or Théâtre de la Bastille systematically provide throughout
the season. L’Automne de Paris is an expression of political will of subsidy givers more
than a matter of special programming urgency, closing some existing gaps. On the
Dutch island of Terschelling in the Northern Sea the Oerel festival for over 20 years
mobilizes the entire community of residents, some 2000 people, and a series of international
environmental productions, squeezed into 2 weeks and 3 weekends, brings
some 60.000 visitors. The festival has become the key factor of the tourist appeal of the
island and is responsible for a huge part of its economic turnover. Through day and
night, rain or shine, visitors cross the island on bicycles and on foot to watch productions
in the dunes, on the beach, in the barns. Once festival is gone by the end of June,
Terschelling remains a popular tourist destination during the summer months but
without much cultural programming . Then, from October until June, a long silence
engulfs a community of ex-fishermen turned tourist entrepreneurs and festival operators.
These 3 randomly chosen examples indicate that what makes the existing festival
map in Europe so remarkable is indeed the diversity of festival options as much as
their sameness; the festival engagement in tiny villages, small towns, medium size
cities and major cultural centers; the intertwined artistic aspirations and economic
expectations; the strong international dimension and the primary dependence on local
resources. While the festivals as a common phenomenon and as a specific artistic
endeavor certainly reveal some influences of globalization, they also articulate – at
least in the very best cases – eloquent answers to the challenges of globalization, in
their creative synergy of local and international elements.
2. 2. · The challenge of internationalisation:
why internationalize and how?
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The growing international dimension of the cultural production and distribution cannot
be explained only as a matter of fashion. Increased communication means and
mobility, explosive raise of tourism, world markets and trade shape the general conditions
for the present-day festival boom. Even though many festivals were initiated
in Europe after the World War 2, the end of the Cold War in 1989 created a culturalpolitical
constellation in which international festivals could prosper and operate with
more autonomy from the political and ideological agendas of the national govern-