Croatian Cultural Festival

Please see below the initial concept paper for the Croatian Cultural Festival, being organised by the British Croatian Society. Relevant input, whether ideas or proposals to take on responsibility for taking a project forward, will be welcome and should be sent to the British Croatian Society.

Croatian Cultural Festival – initial concept paper

The rationale

Croatia’s expected membership of the EU in 2013 will increase media and public interest in Croatia and provide a unique opportunity for a cultural programme to ‘put Croatia on the map’. The Festival will aim to be distinctive and not to repeat the work of the Croatian National Tourist Office (while being compatible with it).

The audience

The Festival will focus on people in the UK who are intellectually curious about Croatia, on young people (possibly involving schools), on people interested in doing business with Croatia and on the media. The audience will go beyond those who traditionally attend activities of the various societies, targeting people with an interest in the wider world and people whose interest in Croatia has been aroused through tourism.

The Festival will also provide an opportunity for Croats living in the UK to celebrate Croatia’s membership of the EU.

New technology will be used to bring the Festival to a large audience and make an impact outside London and the UK with online exhibitions and the use of facebook.

The programme

The Festival will cover a variety of areas within the broad understanding of culture that will be brought together into a coherent programme. Subjects considered so far include: film, visual arts, sport, food and wine (lifestyle), theatre, photography, science, innovation and music. There will also be a focus on young people and schools.

Visits by high level Croatian politicians related to EU accession will, when appropriate and possible, be brought into the Festival programme.

Technology will be used to bring the Festival to a wider audience with online exhibitions and facebook. We try to secure media coverage wherever possible (eg Time Out and relevant specialist media).

Timing

A series of events from the autumn of 2011 and throughout 2012 (provisionally starting with the Ruđer Bošković exhibition at the Royal Society in November), culminating in a major concentration of high profile events in the first half of 2013 until the Croatian National Day celebrations at the end of June.

The organization

The Festival steering committee represents various British-Croatian groups in the UK and has responsibility for ensuring the coherence and quality of the Festival. The committee consists of representatives of the British-Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the Croatian National Tourist Office, AMAC, the International Trust for Croatian Monuments, The Croatian Students and Young Professionals Network, the Croatian Embassy, and the British-Croatian Society (the latter will also provide the secretariat).

Each event will be managed by an individual, a groups of individuals, or by societies who will report to the steering committee.

At this stage we need ideas for individual events and volunteers to make them happen.

Funding

The assumption in the current economic climate is that funding from all sources (government, private sector, individuals) may be modest, but that as the Festival brand establishes itself through events in 2011 / 2012, and with the date for EU accession coming nearer, enthusiasm will grow and increase the opportunities for attracting significant sponsorship.

The steering committee will work with organisers of individual events to avoid competing requests for funding and capitalise on the good will of the likely donors.

The Festival will work in partnership with other organizations whenever possible to increase impact through joint funding.

Title

The title will be finalized as part of the branding process. Suggestions so far go from ‘Festival Croatia’, ‘Celebrating Croatia’ to ‘Crazy about Croatia’, and a wish to convey the diversity of Croatia.