Summary of the first edition of FEST FORUM

4 May 2025

On April 7, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., the FEST FORUM Festival Forum was held at Potocki Palace in Krakow — an event inaugurating a series of nationwide meetings of the festival sector, organized by the Krakow Festival Office in cooperation with partners from across Poland. The aim of the first meeting was to open the discussion and outline perspectives for the actions needed. The co-organizers of the forum are the National Centre for Culture and the Centre for the Development of Creative Industries. The partner of the event is the European Festivals Association (EFA), and the opening lecture was delivered by EFA President Jan Briers.

FEST FORUM was created out of the need to establish a space for festival organizers that enables the exchange of experiences, reflection on challenges, and the joint development of tools that will allow festivals not only to survive, but also to develop in a sustainable way. The organizers believe that, thanks to the recommendations developed during the forum, Polish festivals will become an even stronger, more socially significant, and more conscious element of the cultural landscape.

Future editions will focus on key issues concerning the future of festivals in Poland, such as community-building, sustainable development, trends, legal frameworks and financing, and cultural policy. The theme of community and the ways in which festivals build it will play a particularly important role in this year’s discussion. The aim of the forum is not only to initiate conversations within the sector, but also to emphasize its readiness for dialogue with communities as well as local, regional, and national authorities. The organizers hope that the event will become a platform for real influence on the future of festivals in Poland.

The April edition of FEST FORUM was intended to open the conversation and prepare tools for the next edition of the event. Participants had the opportunity to build a cooperation network, take part in workshops, and define key issues for in-depth analysis during future meetings. The program included introductory lectures, an inspiration panel, and a moderated long table discussion involving all participants of the meeting. At the end of FEST FORUM, workshops were held in three thematic areas: law, the creative sector, and cultural policy.

During the event, a research stand of the Observatory of Trends for Culture was available. After the formal part of the meeting, an afterparty took place at HEVRE club, enhanced by 360-degree projections of festival promotional videos and photos.

The outcomes of the work of a several-dozen-person team of participants representing both large and small festivals from across Poland were compiled in the form of a report summarizing the first edition of FEST FORUM (April 7, 2025). It points to the need to change the way we talk about festivals, which are carriers of values as well as valuable partners for the state, local governments, public and private institutions, and creative communities. Defining and developing solutions to shared challenges will allow festivals not only to survive, but also to grow — so that communities and local governments, artists’ and producers’ circles, audiences, and local infrastructure can develop alongside them.