European Festivals in Dialogue: How Sibiu, Edinburgh, and Avignon are redefining the DNA of performing arts

In a time of global unrest, climate emergency, cultural polarization, and economic instability, Europe's most influential theatre festivals, Edinburgh, Avignon, and Sibiu, gathered in dialogue at the 2025 edition of the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market (SIPAM). In a session titled "European Festivals in Dialogue", directors and cultural thinkers laid bare the challenges and hopes shaping the future of the performing arts.

Moderated by Cosmin Chivu (Sands College of Performing Arts, New York), the conversation featured Roy Luxford (Creative Director, Edinburgh International Festival), Harold David (Co-Chair, Avignon Festival & Compagnies), Vicențiu Răhau (Operations & Programming Director, Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania), and cultural consultant and theorist Octavian Saiu. What followed was not just a panel, but a passionate, humorous, and often philosophical reflection on the role of festivals in society today.

From its founding in 1947, the Edinburgh International Festival was built as a gesture of post-war reconciliation. “It began not with an artistic impulse but a diplomatic one,” said Roy Luxford. Yet that DNA, connecting people across ideological borders, has persisted. Today, it guides Edinburgh’s programming as it navigates shifting truths, increasing censorship, and a growing imperative to serve a broader, younger audience. “We’re trying to sell 50% of our tickets for under £30,” Luxford added, “because if artists are nothing without audiences, festivals are nothing without access.”

Harold David invoked a different kind of DNA in describing Avignon: one born of protest and non-conformity. “The Off Festival was created in 1966 to push against the institution. Its identity is rooted in freedom and diversity,” he said. In recent years, Avignon has intentionally expanded its global reach by welcoming guest countries, this year, Brazil, as a gesture of solidarity with a cultural sector gutted under political repression. “The idea is to open a window to the world, even if that means welcoming voices we may not agree with. That is where the challenge, and the necessity, lies.”

Vicențiu Răhau, representing Sibiu, spoke of the festival’s origins as a student event born out of Romania’s post-communist hunger for connection. “The Sibiu Festival is, first and foremost, for the community. But it's also a festival built on friendship, on hospitality, on offering stages to those who may never have had them before.” Over 840 events now unfold in Sibiu over 10 days, outdoors, in theatres, and increasingly through digital and AI-driven projects that speak to a new generation.

A thread of urgency ran through the discussion: how should festivals respond to the crises of our times without becoming reactive or performative?

For Edinburgh, this meant adopting the concept of “truth” as its curatorial compass in 2025. “Truth has become a degraded term,” Luxford noted, “but it's more important than ever to investigate it through theatre.” One highlight of the festival is a satire on the 2008 global financial crisis, rooted in the downfall of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a play that also pays tribute to Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith. Another is Cutting the Tightrope, a series of short plays addressing censorship in Britain today.

At Sibiu, programming drew on Jacques Derrida’s concept of hospitality to frame its “Thank You” theme. Performances explored the personal and political: Milo Rau’s socio-political interventions, Tiago Rodrigues’s reflections on fatherhood and loss, and works that incorporate augmented intelligence. “We have to touch every kind of audience,” said Răhau, “from those who have never set foot in a theatre to those who seek meaning in the experimental.”

For Avignon, David emphasized the festival’s shift from passive reception to active international curation. “We’re no longer just welcoming companies who happen to apply. We’re building long-term partnerships.” The result: a doubling of international shows in recent years, and an increasing spotlight on underrepresented regions such as Central Asia and South America.

The most resonant message of the panel came from Octavian Saiu, whose philosophical interjections reminded the audience that festivals are not bureaucracies or brands, they are encounters. “Festivals should not be about rearranging prejudices,” he declared. “They are about disrupting them.” Quoting William James and referencing Churchill’s post-war plea to “restore people’s faith in their own humanity,” Saiu argued that the true mission of festivals is to help audiences and artists reimagine the world and themselves.

“Change,” Saiu insisted, “is not the same as evolution. Evolution requires altering the DNA. If we don’t evolve, theatre will become what opera is: admired, but irrelevant.”

Climate change was another pressing concern. “Avignon is held in the summer. By 2050, we could face 50°C temperatures,” David warned. “We must adapt, not just artistically, but logistically.” Meanwhile, Luxford and Răhau both emphasized sustainability, not just ecologically, but socially: cultivating new audiences, supporting emerging artists, and ensuring that festivals remain accessible to all.

But the closing message was one of optimism, rooted in the enduring human need for art and encounter. “To be human is to need performance,” said David. “It will survive. It always has.”

And in Sibiu, that survival is already seeded in its future. “We train volunteers for nine months,” said Răhau. “They become audience members, ambassadors, creators. We listen to them. They are the next DNA of our festival.”

Representation, inclusion, and the voice of women

A key moment of the session came with the intervention of Oana Marin, Assistant Professor at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and coordinator of the Performing Arts Market. Working closely with migrant women and emerging artists with disabilities in Romania, Marin brought into focus a dimension often sidelined in curatorial conversations: that of genuine and meaningful representation.

“My practice is entirely intersectional,” she stated. “But I’ve realized how thin the line is between representation and virtue signaling. Being a human being first, especially in complex political climates, matters most. Ideology often masks deeper, systemic inequalities, many of them economic.”

Her call was clear, for more responsibility, more empathy, and for authentic discussions around what representation really means. “We need time, care, and detailed conversations about what representation is and what it should look like.”

Her words added a necessary layer to the broader reflection on festivals,  beyond numbers, nationality, and symbolic diversity, the essential question remains: who truly has space to create, to be seen, and to be heard?

In an age of fragmentation, the conversation between Sibiu, Avignon, and Edinburgh revealed how distinct voices can converge not into sameness, but into solidarity. As Saiu concluded: “Being together doesn’t mean being identical. It means we can meet on stage, around a table, in art. And perhaps that is our mission: to make dialogue possible again.”