France Festivals

A symposium on « New Territories for Festivals »

On November 16th and 17th, 2006, France Festivals organized at the Abbey of Epau in Le Mans a symposium entitled « New Territories for Festivals ».

Rarely studied, rather unknown, and often under-estimated for their value within the cultural world, festivals today are undergoing significant transformations as are the various players in the performing arts field.
> The renewed importance of local governance and the policy of decentralization, the quest for new audiences, and the evolution of programming, precarious finances of the performing arts, the need to think in terms of networks both domestic and international, and finally, the issue of performance recording and the music distribution network were some of the major questions dealt with during the symposium.


Based on the experience of a first symposium organized in 2003 at Royaumont, and considering its missions of fostering networks and serving as an observatory, France Festivals wished to bring together professionals from the music and dance worlds to analyze the major issues facing festivals today, and identify possible initiatives for individual or collective action to best confront the difficulties faced today.