Open Call "&FRIENDS Visit to the Berlin Performing Arts Festival 2023"

If you are an artist in the field of independent performing arts and your work is focused in Germany, you can apply for the &FRIENDS visit to travel to PAF Berlin as a guest! With the networking format &FRIENDS visit, we bring you together in Berlin with other artists in the independent performing arts as festival observers. The PAF &FRIENDS visit offers you space for exchange and creates opportunities for artistic friendships and collaborations.

The selected &FRIENDS visitors are invited to discover the aesthetics and working methods of the Berlin festival's productions, to attend the mediation and discourse events, and to take advantage of a variety of networking opportunities.

With &FRIENDS visit, artists accompany one festival each as observers. The networking format &FRIENDS visit serves the exchange and initiation of collaborations between performing artists from different regions of Germany and is made possible by the solidarity-based association FESTIVALFRIENDS, a network of regional festivals of the independent performing arts. It is a laboratory for artistic production and a motor for long term regional networking, as well as a platform for strengthening nationwide structures of the independent scenes.

Who can apply: All freelance artists in the performing arts with a work focus in Germany, whether very fresh on the scene or established and experienced. We are aware that art and cultural scenes are not equally accessible to everyone. Therefore we especially invite people to apply who are affected by discirmination(s). We explicitly encourage BIPoC, people with disabilities, queer people, and people of all ages to apply. Feel free to contact us with any accessibility questions prior to your application. The working language will be English and, or German spoken language, we will make every effort to translate into the other language.
Travel expenses will be covered for guests traveling to the event.  All participating artists will be accommodated in the same hotel during the festival. The &FRIENDS visit includes one specially selected event per festival day, for which ticket costs are covered, as well as a curated accompanying program.  After the festival, all participants are asked to contribute to the documentation of their festival experiences and the connections created by the &FRIENDS visit, for which an expense allowance of 300 € will be paid.

WHEN: May 30 - June 4 (arrival day May 29 in the evening, departure day June 5).
Application procedure: We ask for a short biography (max. 800 characters) and a short explanation why the participation in the &FRIENDS visit is attractive for your own work and which working methods, means and topics you are particularly interested in (max. one page).
Application deadline: 19.03.2023
Applications to: emese.bodolay [at] performingarts-festival.de
The acceptance and rejection letters are expected to be sent at the end of the 12th calender week.



The &FRIENDS visit program is part of the FESTIVALFRIENDS project. This project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media through the program "Promoting Connections" of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. (Federal Association of the Performing Arts).

FESTIVALFRIENDS is an association of regional festivals of the independent performing arts, consisting of Performing Arts Festival (Berlin), 6 tage frei (Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg), Festival der Darstellenden Künste Hamburgs - HAUPTSACHE FREI (Hamburg), RODEO (Munich), FAVORITEN (Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia), IMPLANTIEREN (Rhine-Main region, Hesse), Phoenix Theater Festival (Erfurt, Thuringia), FREISTIL_FESTIVAL (Völklingen, Saarland) and Der Rahmen ist Programm (Chemnitz, Saxony).