The Festival Academy : call for applications

First Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Africa Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 – 29 March 2018 Apply now!

The Festival Academy (initiative of the European Festivals Association – EFA), calls for applications for the Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Johannesburg, South Africa to take place from 23 – 29 March 2018. The Festival Academy, in partnership with the Market Theatre Foundation and the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Arts, will present the Atelier. 45 participants will be selected for the 7-day training programme during which they will discuss artistic festival management with ten renowned festival directors. Young festival managers from all over the world are invited to apply until 30 June 2017.

First Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Africa Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 – 29 March 2018 Apply now!

The Festival Academy (initiative of the European Festivals Association – EFA), calls for applications for the Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Johannesburg, South Africa to take place from 23 – 29 March 2018. The Festival Academy, in partnership with the Market Theatre Foundation and the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Arts, will present the Atelier. 45 participants will be selected for the 7-day training programme during which they will discuss artistic festival management with ten renowned festival directors. Young festival managers from all over the world are invited to apply until 30 June 2017.( The deadline has been extented to the 15th of September.)

Share experiences on the essence of festival management

The Atelier for Young Festival Managers is an intense 7-day training programme addressed at emerging  artistic festival directors or those who have ambitions to get involved in programming or in related departments within a festival. It is about sharing experiences and passing on knowledge to the next generation of festival makers: knowledge about programming a festival, while focusing on the very essence of art festivals – the arts and the artist.

Explore festival issues in various formats

45 young festival managers from all over the world will be selected to participate in the Atelier. Around 10 distinguished festival directors will attend, each for at least two full days, and work together with participants throughout the 7 days. Have a look here at the list of presenters of previous Ateliers for Young Festival Managers. In lectures, one-on-one talks and group discussions, as well as during intense workshops on case studies, issues such as artistic vision, public responsibility, creation and coproduction, internationalisation, networking, renewal and sustainability will be explored.

Participants will have the chance to compare their views with colleagues from various cultural and professional contexts and backgrounds, and analyse them in view of the local context of Johannesburg and South Africa. What about the relationship between traditional and contemporary art? To what extend does this reflect in festival management concepts? To what extent do political, social and technological developments have an influence on artistic programming? How to reach (out to) the community where the festival takes place? How to develop a sustainable context for festivals, artists and audience? What are the festivals’ responsibilities towards environmental issues? What are the similarities and differences to other contexts?

Join a unique new network

Participants of the 12th edition will become part of this unique global network of young festival makers that counts 450 alumni from 67 countries to date, after 11 Ateliers for Young Festival Managers since 2006 in Görlitz, Varna, Singapore, Izmir, Ljubljana, Edinburgh, Poznan, Beirut, Gwangju, Budapest and Chiang Mai and two editions of the Festival Production Management Training (2016 and 2017).

Get to know our partner: The Market Theatre Foundation

The Market Theatre Foundation, founded in Johannesburg in 1976 by Mannie Manim and the late Barney Simon, was constructed out of Johannesburg’s Indian Fruit Market – built in 1913. The theatre went on to become internationally renowned as South Africa’s “Theatre of the Struggle”. The theatre challenged the apartheid regime, armed with little more than the conviction that culture can change society. The strength and truth of that conviction was acknowledged in 1995 when the theatre received the American Jujamcyn Award. In providing a voice to the voiceless, the theatre did not forego artistic excellence, but, rather, made a point of it. Its twenty-one international and over three hundred South African theatre awards bears eloquent testimony to the courage and artistic quality of its work. During the past four decades, the theatre has evolved into a cultural complex for theatre, music, dance and the allied arts. Today, The Market Theatre Foundation remains at the forefront of South African theatre, actively encouraging new works that continue to reach international stages. The Vision of the Market Theatre Foundation is to create an authentic South African cultural experience which is committed to providing the highest level of artistic excellence in all aspects of the performing and visual arts in which the education and development of a diverse community of artists, audiences and technicians is assured.

In collaboration with the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg

Through advancing excellence in research, teaching and learning, the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, combines critical inquiry with artistic practice which engages in transformative ways with our contemporary urban, African and global contexts. Situated in the vibrant hub of Braamfontein in the heart of the dynamic creative city of Johannesburg, they offer programmes in Digital Arts, Fine Arts, Film and Television, History of Art, Music, Theatre and Performance, Applied Theatre and Drama Therapies (Drama for Life) and Cultural Policy Management to students at undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.

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