Asia-Europe Cultural Festival

The Festival celebrates the importance of artistic diversity through a series of online and offline events throughout the year. It also allows for enhanced opportunities for dialogue and exchange amongst artists from both the regions.

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need to bring people together to inspire others across widely dispersed communities through their varied experiences and provide comfort while dealing with immediate challenges. The richness and diversity of artistic expressions from Asia and Europe have offered much solace to people in these regions as they have coped with physical isolation and uncertain situations.

As we now emerge into a post-pandemic world, there is greater need to promote mutual understanding through shared experiences. The Asia-Europe Cultural Festival plays an important role in this context by creating a platform for raising awareness about different cultures, enabling international exchange and providing forums for dialogue between the Asian and European communities.

The Asia-Europe Cultural Festival contributes to the implementation of SDG 11.4 (safeguarding intangible cultural heritage) by presenting diverse traditional forms of artistic expressions among public audiences; SDG 8.9 (promote local culture and products) by highlighting the arts of the host country; and, SDG 17.17 (encourage and promote public-private and civil society partnerships) by enabling government-civil society partnerships to promote artistic diversity.

In 2022, the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival: Cultures Connect will take place on 26 & 27 November 2022 in Brussels, Belgium. A public arts festival, Cultures Connect, is co-organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the European Union.

2022 Edition programme: https://dev.asef.org/projects/asia-europe-cultural-festival-cultures-connect/