New research by the British Council on the Gulf's festivals sector highlights the role festivals play in economic diversification plans and identifies future challenges

• New research developed in 2018/19 examines the challenges and opportunities in the festivals’ scene across the Gulf

Dubai: The British Council today launched new research it conducted on the festivals sector across the Gulf following a Gulf Festival Symposium which was recently held in Muscat, Oman (Feb 12-13) and attended by over 80 professionals from across the UK and the Gulf. The research, undertaken with BOP consulting, is the first to map out the current state of the festivals sector in the Gulf, and was developed working closely with partners across the region. It issues five recommendations for moving forward in the sector, to ensure continued skills development and relevance to future generations. It looks at specific trends and opportunities for key markets in the region – the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait– and is intended as a resource for festival stakeholders looking to develop cultural skills in these countries and beyond.

Speaking on the importance of festivals, Rehana Mughal, Senior Programme Manager, Culture and Sport, Gulf at British Council states: “The Gulf countries are home to some extraordinary and diverse festivals which, not only contribute to the sharing of culture and traditions, but also provide socio-economic benefits to their local communities and play a significant role in bolstering tourism. It is therefore imperative that we create a platform and catalyse conversations around the skills needs for festivals and festivals as a sector in its own right to facilitate their growth and sustainability and ensure their continued success.”

Each of the countries examined in the research paper has ambitious plans for economic diversification and festivals are an important element of these plans – both as a way to develop tourism and to provide local populations with cultural events that celebrate national heritage and identity.  The research states that each country has a vision to increase the number of festivals they host and to raise the level and quality of existing events to meet youth aspirations and the needs of local talent. While commonalities were identified across the region, the research also identified that each country have very distinct and different strengths and challenges.

The key findings in the UAE are that it has a highly developed festival sector concentrated in three of the emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah). Curatorship and creative production skills were also identified as the key areas of focus to take the sector on to the next stage of development within the private sector.

In April, British Council, in partnership with Alserkal Avenue, will bring together delegates that attended the Gulf Festival Symposium and others with an interest in the topic to discuss the research and how to take the ideas forward in the UAE context. The workshop will take place during Alserkal Avenue’s Social Saturday on April 27.

Commenting on the just-published research and also last week’s event on festivals in the region,Gavin Anderson, the British Council’s Country Director in the UAE, states: “The scale and scope of many of the current festivals in the Gulf is simply amazing. However, there is very little research that exists and maps the arts and culture sector here. We wanted to help the sector in both Gulf and UK understand where they are at now and where they want to be in the future. Our hope is that they will then work together and share ideas and experience to enable a positive shift toward developing the festival infrastructure so that future generations can continue to both connect with past heritage and at the same time develop new modes of creative expression.”

When looking at the GCC festival scene as a whole, the research also highlights that despite festivals being seen as an important contributor to social and economic growth, many across the region are experiencing tightening budgets and moving from a state-funded model towards business models with a greater reliance on earned income, including sponsorship, fundraising and event revenues. Adapting to this changing context will require changes in approach to business, operations and artistic programming. An important finding was that developing a curatorial vision for events is increasingly important in a busy and maturing sectoral marketplace. The two priorities it highlights for development support at regional level are therefore business modelling and curatorship.

Five recommendations are highlighted in the research paper for moving the festival sector in the region forward and nurturing and strengthening the skills of the next generation of festival professionals and leaders:

• Establish a regional forum and network for the festival sector, building a shared understanding of what the sector is and its key needs
• Create a suite of short-course festival training options matched to priority cultural management skills needs for festivals in GCC countries, with an aim of delivering several iterations of each (adapted to a local context) across several GCC nations.
• Seek out local government and cultural partners for delivery of each of these courses, to support them financially and embed the training strategically for the long-term.
• Support festival stakeholders in GCC countries to share evidence of their sector’s strengths and development needs with their own stakeholder groups
• Support festival stakeholders to build on this research and open up dialogues with educational institutions around establishing regular training courses or course additions for new entrants to the sector, both in the cultural and event management spheres.

The Gulf Festival Symposium in Muscat came hot on the heels of the hugely successful Creative Futures Forum in Riyadh, a collaboration between the British Council and Saudi’s General Cultural Authority, which gathered over 200 delegates (including key decision makers and art professionals) to discuss the social and economic impact of the creative economy in the Gulf.

The Festival Management Skills Research took place between May and November 2018 and included extensive desk research, fieldwork in each Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country and interviews with over 62 stakeholders. Interviewees included government officials in culture, heritage and tourism ministries, festival organisers both within government departments and in cultural organisations, cultural organisations that host or support festivals and event managers. Experienced British Council staff in each nation and a range of UK-based organisations with experience of working in the Gulf in the cultural or festival sectors were also consulted.

The full report can be downloaded from https://www.britishcouncil.ae/en/programmes/arts-creative-economy/festival-skills 

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Sahar Salman
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© Press Release 2019