During the 2015 Festival the news arrived that Swaledale Festival was one of just 16 in the UK to be awarded the Europe for Festivals/Festivals for Europe (EFFE) label of recognition under a new scheme administered by the prestigious European Festivals Association and supported by the European Parliament and the European Commission. Once the embargo was lifted,(mid Festival, unfortunately) we proudly added the EFFE logo to our website home page.
On 27 September the label held an official launch ceremony with the award of its first awards, in Paris, and Janet Hall from the Swaledale Festival Publicity and Marketing team attended, using the opportunity to find out how the label could be used to promote the Festival and to spread the word amongst those attending, about our festival in what is a relatively little known part of the UK.
The launch was held in the Google Cultural Institute in Paris and the birth of the 'label' was explained along with how it is intended that the label's use of electronic media will be used to promote the labelled festivals in the coming years. Although the label is initially awarded for 2 years, it is not intended that it will then be lost, but renewal will be regarded as an opportunity to update festival information. It is not unknown for festivals to cease to take place or to change their focus of activity and currency is important for online information.
It was noticeable that the mention of Yorkshire this year to other delegates there brought instant recognition, no doubt thanks to the work of Welcome to Yorkshire and in particular the bringing of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart to the county.
We hope that as the EFFE label becomes better recognised, that it will result in more visitors to Swaledale Festival from the rest of Europe. The slogan that EFFE has adopted is 'In Europe the arts are just a festival away'