The USAID Visit Tunisia Activity and its partner, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, held a series of event and festival training sessions throughout Tunisia, helping Tunisian event and festival organizers better plan, market, and fund engaging cultural events.
From March 2 to March 12, the project held four trainings in southern, central, and northern Tunisia, including in the underserved regions of Tabarka, Kairouan, Douz, and Tataouine. These workshops drew more than 170 event and festival organizers, 90% of whom have events lined up for this year. Visit Tunisia held an additional workshop in Tunis on March 18, reaching 45 event and festival organizers. Many workshop attendees oversee major international festivals in Tunisia, such as the annual Mouled Festival in Kairouan and the International Sahara Festival in Douz, which each attracted more than 1 million visitors last year.
A man guides his camel in the southern city of Douz, Tunisia.
The expertise of Smithsonian, one of the world’s premier cultural research and educational institutions, is a major asset to the project. Based in Washington DC, Smithsonian has over 50 years of experience in event and training management, and organizes an annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival at the US’s National Mall that draws more than 1.5 million visitors each year. Halle Butvin, Smithsonian’s director of special projects, is a cultural heritage advisor to Visit Tunisia, providing crucial support to trainings and workshops to artisans and event organizers.
Halle Butvin, Smithsonian’s director of special projects, speaks to event and festival organizers during a training session in Kairouan.
During the project’s event and festival trainings, participants learned about best practice for cultural events and festivals, with case studies and examples from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and around the world. They also participated in workshops that covered practical knowledge and tools to develop high-quality events. Topics covered included understanding the visitor, cultural heritage representation, event design – including hands-on activities, balancing visitor and community needs, working with volunteers, budgeting and fundraising, organization and logistics, security, outreach, and more.
The training participants spoke highly of the sessions, which they said introduced them to new organizational concepts and resources that will help them throughout every step of the event planning and management process. They also appreciated Visit Tunisia’s training toolkits, which provided detailed information and guidance on event/festival management that they can look to for future reference.
An event and festival management training participant reads over training material provided by Visit Tunisia.
Souad Lotfi, a training participant who manages the Nasrallah Cultural Center in Kairouan, said: "It was truly a great training, as we learned about many aspects of events and festival management, such as networking and setting goals and objectives. I am now taking my next steps to sign partnerships in the cultural sector.”
Hamida Hlioui, president of the Spring Arts Festival in Kairoun, added: “The training covered all the points we need to successfully organize our festivals or events…We are also happy with training team, which gave us a lot of hope and energy to continue our events.”
Participants of Visit Tunisia and Smithonian’s event and festival management training sessions hold up completion certificates.
To reach even more event and festival organizers throughout Tunisia, the project aims to make similar training sessions available on its website in a Masterclass format. There will also be additional technical assistance or grant opportunities for select organizers.
To track and promote Tunisia’s diverse events and festivals, the project is organizing an annual Event and Festival Calendar. If you are an event or festival organizer in Tunisia, complete this brief survey to be included in the 2022 Calendar of Tunisian Events and Festivals, and to receive information about upcoming training, workshops, and grant opportunities.
