European cooperation to find a new model of sustainable development for small festivals

Small music festivals in Europe are widely considered to be incubators for emerging artists and local development actors.
Still, they struggle as they face rapidly changing market trends, a concentration of power within the live music sector in the hands of a few operators and little political support. Instead, they play an essential role within local communities, stimulating ideas and innovation, producing work and are platforms for talents of all ages! That’s why SMA! is bor, a European project led by Ypsigrock Festival one of the best boutique festivals in Europe taking place in Castelbuono, Palermo, since 1997.

SMA! aims at defining and implementing a business model which can tackle common problems and provide a feasible guideline for other festivals.

Main tasks:

– Implement a community development strategy, in order to improve and empower the local identity of the festival

– Provide specific training to the people who work actively in the festival’s team, in particular considering emerging professional talent

– Promote mobility and circulation of organisers

– Improve the economical sustainability of the events, through several actions such as enforcing cultural tourism and by

developing neighbouring businesses

– Improve the ecological sustainability of the events

– Improve the accessibility to the festivals (physical, linguistic, cultural)

– Improve the transnational cooperation by connecting with other festivals out of the local borders and promoting the model.

Besides the Guidelines for a small but sustainable festival, SMA! is focused on training professionals,  designing new touristic and sustainable routes and creating a network of boutique festivals.

Visit the SMA website

The cover image is part of the visual campaign for Ypsigrock 2021