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European Festivals for Peace

European Festivals for Peace

March 9, 2022

The European Festival Association condemns Russia's hostilities in Ukraine. For the time being, we will suspend all our activities and all our collaboration projects in Russia and give our full support to the steps to end the war in Europe. We show solidarity with Ukrainian people, artists, arts festivals, cultural actors and all the people of the region. We act in accordance with UN resolution that demands Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders".

The EFA Board on 3 March 2022 has convened and drafted the following statement, based on the correspondence that was shared by EFA membership by email in the past 7 days and in addition to the statements already published at: https://www.efa-aef.eu/en/ukraine

Festivals for Peace – Solidarity with Ukraine

  • We stand united at this time of crisis with all those who oppose and resist war.
  • We condemn military invasions that threaten the lives of so many people.
  • We are taking a stand against war, and all acts of war and expansion, by the Russian regime.
  • We call for solidarity with Ukraine and for everyone to demonstrate this, as well as solidarity with all those that are suffering from the aggression of the Russian regime.

EFA has shown since its foundation in 1952 how important dialogue is for people in the arts between east and west, north and south Europe and with other continents. Arts and culture  are a critical platform of encounters and dialogue, beyond politics. Therefore, we invite all EFA members to spread this message.

EFA continues to give visibility to the concrete actions members and festivals do for peace, against war, in solidarity with Ukraine, on our webpage.  
A concrete action is one that supports humanitarian organisations close to the people's needs. For example, EFA will donate € 2000,- to UNICEF.

European Festivals Association (EFA)