Discussion panel under the Big Music for Small Cities project

Submitted by KA9031 on
Big Music for Small Cities

On August, 12-13 the discussion panel “Art Festivals in Cross-border Regions. Best practices and Development strategy” was held in Petrozavodsk and Joensuu under the Big Music for Small Cities the project.

Among the participants were the representatives of 14 art festivals held on the territory of the Republic of Karelia and North Karelia (Finland): Music Festival “Ruskeala Symphony”, International Festival of Arts “Onego-Classic”, International Rural Festival of Humor “Kindasovo”, International Organ Festival “ Grande Orgue ”, Festival of Young Opera Stars“ Opera Vita ”, International Choral Festival Competition named after S.P. Oskina“Vivat, Boys ”, International Festival of Folk Music“ Kantele ”, Winter Music Festival in Joensuu, Festival “Sounds of Pielinen”, Kaivos Festival, Kihaus Folk Festival, Kitee International Festival of Arts, LIEKSA BRASS Week Festival and Boundless Art Festival.

Two of the world's best experts in the field of festival activities Dmitry Grinchenko, General Director of Russian Concert Agency and Winter International Festival of Arts, and Kai Ambrela, Executive Director of the Finland Festivals, were the moderators of the panel.

During the first day greetings and perspectives of festival activity development were expressed by Alexey Lesonen, the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Karelia, Dmitry Bazegsky, the  Head of Petrozavodsk Branch Office of Karelia CBC Programme, Tatyana Kordyukova, the Head of the Department of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia, Producer of Joensuu City Teemu Laasonen and project manager Anna Tomchik. The experts Dmitry Grinchenko and Kai Amberla shared their experience, presented many interesting practices and trends of implementing and developing festival activities. All speakers highlighted the need and the efficiency of using festival forms to strengthen international cooperation and educational process in the field of culture and arts as well as to develop creative industries and promote joint creative environment on both sides of the border.

During two meeting days each representative had the opportunity to tell the colleagues about their festival work. Russian and Finnish participants showed the activities through the impact on the tourist attractiveness of the region, the development of small territories, the role of the festival in supporting young talents and initiatives.

All art festivals presented during the panel received high expert assessment. Due to similar factors such as location, the tourist attractiveness and favorable marketing component panel participants drawn general conclusion that necessary prerequisites for joint work were created.

Of course, any festival is a complex structure that does not have a single key to success. But the presence of one's own identity, a correctly built creative parabola, an understanding of the need to improve the quality of life of the target audience entails a perspective. All participants noted that regardless of the focus and creative goals of a festival, it should always go towards professionalism and its main goal to change for the better everything that is directly related to a festival and, first of all, people!

In conclusion, the discussion took place during which the participants shared their opinion. Despite the fact that the interaction between the parties took place online, everyone agreed that the first meeting inspired them by the opportunity to hear the opinion about their work from panel moderators, and, of course, by the new perspectives for developing the festival activity. The discussion panel “Art Festivals in Cross-border Regions. Best practices and Development strategy” is the beginning of a great joint journey! The development strategy is the next stage of the Big Music for Small Cities project.

Project “Big Music for Small Cities” is implemented under the Karelia CBC Programme (https://kareliacbc.fi/ru), funded by the European Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Finland.

More about the project:

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Big Music for Small Cities at VKontakte