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Registration and rating system of Hungarian festivals
(Downloadable flyer)
This project was initiated jointly by five leading national festival unions:
Federation of Hungarian Art Festivals – Magyar Művészeti Fesztiválok Szövetsége
Federation of Hungarian Festivals of Gastronomy Gasztrofeszt – Magyarországi Gasztronómiai Fesztiválok Szövetsége
Hungarian Federation of Folklore Festivals CIOFF Hungary – Folklórfesztiválok Magyarországi Szövetsége CIOFF Hungary
Hungarian Festival Association – Magyar Fesztivál Szövetség
Hungarian Open-Air Theatres Union – Szabadtéri Színházak Szövetsége
The complex programme enjoyed the political and financial support of the government. The ministries in charge of culture and tourism (the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Local Government) had a record of joint sponsorship of cultural festivals, which co-operation was extended to backing the registration and rating exercises. The interested parties – the professional unions and the supporting ministries – attached the following expectations to the project:
- sounder information about the ever growing and diversifying field of festivals and similar events
- clearer criteria for the decisions on the distribution of public funds
- a stronger legitimation and justification of public support to festivals
- improved guidance for private sponsors
- better orientation for the general and the professional public
- and ultimately, a rise in the quality of festivals, in all their aspects
The first phase started in October 2008 with the registration of festivals, which was followed by the second phase of qualification or rating from May 2009 on.
The book based on the survey of Hungarian festivals in 2006 (Fesztivál-világ: Festival-World) contained a chapter with the design of a rating system: that can be considered an early antecedent. The actual scheme is being managed and supervised by the Hungarian Festival Association, with the involvement of the Budapest Observatory.
A few clues to this site:
The page Regisztrált fesztiválok contains the list of registered festivals. Registration is voluntary. but obligatory for members of the Festival Association. These latter need not pay, for others there is a fee of HUF 5000 + vat for the first entry and HUF 3000 + vat for updating a festival's registration after a new edition. The process is largely automated. Approval of registration is done by the management of the programme. The data sheet (adatlap) at the end of each entry contains the information provided by the respective festival.
The page on statistics (Statisztika) offers periodical summaries of the data on the registered festivals.
The Minősítés page provides introduction to the qualifying/rating system. This process is entirely voluntary, involving financial contribution of the festivals to the expenses of the monitor - sometimes two - who administers the assessment along a complex standard scoring scheme, consisting of 23 aspects - the annotated list is available in Hungarian on the Minősítés page. Besides percentage scores, monitors make written notes, too. These are communicated to the festival organisers. A summary of the assessment is displayed onthe Minősített fesztiválok page.
To achieve a closer correspondence to the European label scheme of EFFE, the system underwent a general rehaul in 2014. For further information write to fesztivalszovetseg@fesztivalszovetseg.hu
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