Festivals have a crucial part in what European culture has to offer, with distinctive features, including public visibility and the ability to attract occasional audiences, involving also crucial issues and facilitating the processes of awareness and collective education; the tension of experimentation and confrontation with artistic experiences from different countries and cultures; to be a major cross-sectoral factor for the economic development; to express social commitment and active citizenship, with voluntary work, also youth. The “Festivals. Pas-de-deux européen, économique et culturel” project started from the need of the arts festivals industry to have an on hand definition of their specific responsibilities, for positions and a consequent functional preparation - so far lacking globally - which can be translated into a system of best practices, to support the professionalism and development of traders and the organizations in this industry. The aim of the project is thus to build a skills framework for the industry professionals or volunteers engaged in various operational areas as creative, management, administrative, marketing and communication, people and fund raising, technical and logistics. The project thus responds to the strategic objectives of the Erasmus+ Programme to fight unemployment, helping to prepare the access of youth into the labor market and the (re) training of the workforce to maintain and enhance their professional skills at risk and be more competitive on the cultural industry (Europe 2020). It is also in line with the challenges of enhancing human capital of youth in contribution to society, providing opportunities for training in the context of cultural voluntary (27/11/09 Resolution on youth, in the Creativity and Culture area). It is also in line with the methodological objectives to enhance the lifelong learning, developing synergies between the system formal education establishments ( cultural / artistic management) and non-formal and informal learning (operational practices, work experience and volunteering), strengthening the validating system of duties within the arts festivals industry (ET 2020). To achieve these objectives, the project favors the bottom-up methodology of action-research, maximizing the skills and experience of the industry, integrated by the contribution of higher education to cultural management. Thanks to the support of a dedicated ICT platform, the project starts from the direct observation the implementation of 3 different arts festivals in Europe, it integrates with the comparison of European traders (thanks to the associations, stakeholders), producing concrete results as a framework of Competencies, specific Training Modules through e-learning to improve skills and a User-guide of best practices in the management of arts festivals, which incorporates the previous results in the perspective of practical support for those who face the creation of a festival. For 30 months, more than 60 traders from 3 different countries will be directly involved in this research , and remotely a few hundred from all over Europe to integrate and test the results. The outputs will be made available in 5 languages, for free on an online platform, synergic and open to any art and culture stakeholder, to spread utilization of the products to the broadest possible audience for an additional 2 years after the project closure. In the long term the project will thus promote: - The organization of future arts festivals, optimizing and enhancing skills in the various operational roles and reducing errors, risks, and waste; - The launch of new projects, supported by the required skills knowledge, promoting employment and improving the professionalism of the involved traders, also youth; - The recognition of common operational standards among all European countries, integrating the professional culture and formal education systems.