The European Festivals Association invites to its 2024 Arts Festivals Summit on Usedom/Germany from 12 to 15 May, hosted by the Usedom Music Festival.

The atmosphere on Usedom, Germany’s second largest island, located in the Baltic Sea, invites you with it’s over 42 kilometres of sandy beaches and beautiful nature, charming seaside resorts and ambivalent historical sites, to collectively think about and experience the purpose of the arts.

We invite for a moment of awareness: of our privileges and responsibilities (of festivals, of Europe) we will share and research in Peenemünde, a place that hosted a military research centre with the aim to invest in technological research to produce weapons of terror during the World War II.

We invite for a moment of caring, from our base at Hotel Kaiserhof (Seaside Resort Heringsdorf) directly located at the beach of Usedom: caring for the artists, for conditions of working together amongst festivals and stakeholders surrounding us, for our work and if not least for the planet.

We invite for a moment of connectivity: feeling, discussing, working and walking together, taking boats from the German to the Polish part of the island; connection of a large group of festival makers, artists, local, national and European decision makers who come together to question, to support, to contemplate and to dream up future projects together.

The Arts Festivals Summit Usedom attempts not only to understand but also to feel and experience the power of the arts today, with the invitation of a group of EFFEA artists who will allow us to experience the words we speak and hear: 12 May will be about connecting, 13 May about researching, and 14 May about the handcraft of our business, including the EFA Members General Assembly with the election of the new board, and the farewell party. 15 May will be departure day.

Together with our host, the Usedom Music Festival, we are developing a rich artistic and cultural programme that includes a concert of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, a concert of Ukrainian artists, and the visit of the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum.