The European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) is back with its fifth call, supporting festivals to work together and create opportunities for emerging artists across borders. Applications are open for residencies taking place in 2027.
An initiative of the European Festivals Association (EFA), EFFEA will support around 50 residencies bringing together at least 150 festivals from across Europe and beyond.
An EFFEA Residency brings together one leading festival and at least two partner festivals from three eligible countries around an emerging artist or artistic group. Together, the festivals give artists time, space and support to develop their work, reach new audiences, meet programmers and build connections beyond their national context.
Emerging artists are not defined by age but rather by their novelty to programmers and audiences and their potential for international breakthrough. Artists can be individuals or groups working across various artistic disciplines.
Both leading and partner festivals must: have organised at least one festival edition; be registered on FestivalFinder.eu before submitting the application. Eligible countries are the EU member states and Creative Europe countries. Other countries that can be included (as a partner festival, or for proposed artists): Israel, Palestine, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.
Two residency formats can be proposed:
- EFFEA Discovery: Festivals support artists at the early stages of their careers who have strong potential to break through internationally. 40 grants of 8,000 EUR will be awarded.
- EFFEA Springboard: Festivals support artists who are already established in their own countries and ready to develop their careers internationally. 10 grants of 15,000 EUR will be awarded.
As one of the main objectives of this project is to support emerging artists, it is required that a minimum of 80% of the grant value is used to cover costs made by the artist(s).
