EFFE Awarded Prague Quadrennial for the Most Trend-Setting Festivals 2015-2016An international jury, presided over by Vincent Baudriller, director of Théâtre Vidy in Lausanne, awarded the Prague Quadrennial as one of the 12 of the most trend-setting European festivals of this year from a pool of 760 festivals from 31 countries. The main criteria were artistic merit, innovation, internationality, political value, and sustainability. The jury's decision was built on months of hard work by the hubs and experts who have pulled together a definitive list of their country's festival offerings, from world-renowned dates in the cultural calendar, to eclectic events known only to switched-on insiders. From the jury statement: "Another hugely significant international gathering in its field, the Prague Quadrennial has identified a specific area of artistic practice and made a great impact. Its programs for students and young professionals are an extremely important aspect of its program, making it a vital gathering for young artists and designers where they can come together and invent the future of stage design." The Prague Quadrennial 2015 took place June 18 - 28, 2015 in over 60 indoor and outdoor places and venues in the center of Prague. It included over 600 live events and over 150 expositions during the course of 11 days and presented scenography, costume, sound, lighting, and costume design work from 78 countries. The Prague Quadrennial had 180 000 visits and over 6,000 accredited professionals. Over 1,300 students from all over the world took part in workshops and performances by students. The Prague Quadrennial 2015 took place under the title "SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics." Since its inception in 1952, the European Festivals Association has brought the importance of arts and culture to society's attention. The new program EFFE, Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe, is a next step in the asscociation's work. It brings together festivals that are deeply committed to the arts, their communities, and Europe in a new and dynamic platform and honors them with the EFFE labels and EFFE Awards. Complete list of awarded festivals includes: 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 Poznan (Poznan, Poland), Midnight Sun Film Festival (Sodankylä, Finland), Manifesta (Amsterdam, Netherlands; the location of the 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). 
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