West Africa

About the Component

The West Africa Component strengthens collaboration between festivals within West Africa as well as between West Africa and Europe. Festivals serve as market places of different stakeholders in the arts and cultural landscapes, offering professionals to meet, exchange and engage with audiences. West Africa is a multilingual and multicultural sub-region in Africa.

Thus, At the heart of the project lies sub-regional internationalisation: The project supports West African festivals to build connections with each other first, and to develop links with Europe on their own terms.
By fostering collaboration across festival clusters, disciplines and career stages, the project creates space for peer learning, professional growth and stronger festival networks across the region.

Target Groups

• Festivals and their audiences in West Africa and Europe.
• Festival professionals, including management, artistic direction, commercial and technical staff.
• Individual artists

Objectives

• Strengthen West African cultural regional integration through transnational festival cooperation.
• Support stronger partnerships between festivals, platforms and structures across the region.
• Develop sustainable cooperation between West African and European festivals, initiated on West African festivals' own terms.
• Develop professional development initiatives from a West African perspective for festival professionals c
• Develop sustainable mechanisms for gender equality, inclusion and environmental sustainability across all festival cooperation activities.

Key Focus Areas

1. Festival Cluster Development
Building six transnational, sectoral festival clusters that connect large hub festivals with mid-scale festivals across the region.

2.Professional development
Offering short-form and long-form training for festival management, artistic direction, commercial and technical staff.

3. Artists’ Networks
Connecting individual artists and their managers through training, mentoring and international mobility, building the skills and confidence needed to present their work beyond national borders.