Manifesta and Noorderzon receive European Festival Award

An international Jury, presided over by Vincent Baudriller, Director of Théâtre Vidy in Lausanne, rewarded 12 of the most trend-setting European festivals of this year from a pool of 760 festivals from 31 countries. Manifesta, the roving European Biennial of Contemporary art with offices in Amsterdam and Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival in Groningen are among the winners.

Festivals are fast becoming the most popular way to experience culture in Europe, with attendance that has grown drastically over the last decade.

250 leading personalities gathered to celebrate the 12 winners of the EFFE Awards 2015-2016, and the art that brings millions of people together each year at Europe’s thousands of festivals. EFFE’s International Jury, international experts, with expertise from Aachen to Zagreb via New York gave out the awards to honour Europe's agenda-setting festivals.

The event took place at the Théâtre de la Ville as part of the Festival d’Automne à Paris’ programme and is part of the EFFE – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe project initiated by the European Festivals Association. The 2015-2016 awards were sponsored by the Google Cultural Institute.

Winners 2015 EFFE Award
Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria)
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (Aix-en-Provence, France)
BIG BANG (Antwerp, Belgium; festival takes place in 11 cities across Europe)
Malta Festival Poznań (Poznań, Poland)
Midnight Sun Film Festival (Sodankylä, Finland)
Manifesta (Amsterdam, Netherlands; location of festival changes with each edition)
NEXT (Lille, France/Kortrijk, Belgium (Flanders)/Tournai, Belgium (Wallonia))
Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival (Groningen, Netherlands)
Perforations Festival (Zagreb/Rijeka/Dubrovnik, Croatia)
Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (Prague, Czech Republic)
Santarcangelo Festival Internazionale del teatro in Piazza (Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy)
SICK! (Brighton/Manchester, United Kingdom)