Voila! Europe Theatre Festival cultivates European theatre in London. Beyond our annual festival, we want to help artists connect and collaborate, and create opportunities for cross-cultural exchange.

Thank you to Fanny, Valentina, Mark, Laura, Lara, and Iante for joining this session and sparking some new ideas.

During our festival, we try to connect the artists taking part, via a facebook group, a press launch/meet & greet event, and last year we ran a 2-day European Theatre Forum. We also encourage artists to see each other's shows for free with a festival pass for participating artists.

But it's difficult for artists to take advantage of networking & development opportunities during festival time, as they're busy rehearsing their shows. What would it take for Voila to become a year-round hub for European artists?

- offer workshops for emerging artists & theatre companies on practical skills like marketing and producing a festival show.
- host a meet & greet / Q&A event about applying for the festival, during the call for submissions
- create a hashtag like #OVconnect (the Old Vic's regular opportunity for emerging artists to connect with each other)

Some of these ideas require more resources... but for sure we can start up a hashtag for connecting European artists! What should it be?

We'll get that going soon over at @VoilaEurope on Twitter. See you there!

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Amy Clare Tasker
deputy director, Voila! Europe Theatre Festival
www.voilafestival.co.uk