We delve into the heart of theater fairs
From Saturday, February 24th to Friday, March 1st, we have enjoyed FETEN, the international fair of children’s performing arts in Gijón/Xixón. The president of Sa Xerxa de Teatre and director of FIET, Jaume Gomila, artistic co-director Àngela Jaume, and manager Aina Quintana attended this unmissable event for theater enthusiasts. Additionally, FETEN was utilized to hold the annual General Assembly of COFAE for the year 2024 on Wednesday, February 28th.
FETEN has established itself in recent years as the main meeting point for professionals in the children’s performing arts sector across the country. It is also a significant event for all audiences, with around 30 companies and 600 programmers participating only this year. Representatives of Sa Xerxa took advantage of the seven days of the fair to attend premieres, discover new shows, and meet with companies. In fact, many of the companies attending FETEN met with Jaume, Àngela, and Aina to start discussing FIET 2024, with the intention of building connections and collaborations for the most important children and youth theater event in the Balearic Islands. Apart from meeting with these companies, they also used the fair to have meetings with representatives of relevant entities, such as ASSITEJ General Secretary Gonzalo Moreno, Eulàlia Ribera from El Petit, or Lola Lara from Teatralia. Nevertheless, there was also time to strengthen ties with colleagues from the Balearic Islands, like Elisenda Farré from FiraB! and the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics, Maria Guasch from the Festival Barruguet in Santa Eulària des Riu, or Josep Marquès from Teatre des Born in Ciutadella.
In fact, events like FETEN help the Sa Xerxa de Teatre team to think and rethink the Children and Youth Theater Fair of the Balearic Islands in 2024, and attending is made possible thanks to the support in external mobility from the IEB. Consuming new shows and meeting representatives from local companies help us start outlining the programmatic lines for this year. We not only work with the performances that will take place at FIET but also with the parades and complementary workshops, professional sessions, festive activities… The Fira of Vilafranca is getting closer, and every opportunity is good to work on it and make progress! In fact, from Sa Xerxa, we have already started preparing the documentation for grant applications to build a more special FIET every year.
As an entity that works with and for the performing arts, we are part of COFAE, the Coordinadora de Ferias de Artes Escénicas. Therefore, on Wednesday, February 28th, we attended the annual General Assembly. In this large meeting, with the participation of 15 out of the 19 fairs that make up the entity, the financial balance and activity report for the 2023 fiscal year were presented, the projects and activities that will shape 2024 were introduced, and the renewal of the board of directors, with a continuity approach, was approved. The occasion was seized to appoint Miquel Santamaría as an Honorary Member of COFAE for his work within the board of the entity since its foundation in 2006, representing the Mostra d’Alcoi. Another relevant section of the Assembly involved discussions about the fairs. The importance of the facilitator pro role was emphasized, and the dates of the national fairs were communicated, which you can consult here.
Therefore, as you can see, we continue working in a network to make the non-profit project Sa Xerxa de Teatre a professionalized entity that works for the promotion of the performing arts, especially for children and youth in the Balearic Islands. For this reason, the next stop is at the Opening Doors festival in Wales from March 12th to 16th. We will soon explain how this fair went, so stay tuned to our social networks and the website!
Therefore, as you can see, we continue working in a network to make the non-profit project Sa Xerxa de Teatre a professionalized entity that works for the promotion of the performing arts, especially for children and youth in the Balearic Islands. For this reason, the next stop is at the Opening Doors festival in Wales from March 12th to 16th. We will soon explain how this fair went, so stay tuned to our social networks and the website!
