European festivals are successful, yet they are getting out of breath and are looking alike. It becomes important to seek a new specificity and singularity for these festivals, which would allow them to reconnect with their initial emancipatory scope. With their rich history, huge media exposure and broad audiences, many European events could turn out to be artistically and politically more courageous, and truly innovative. Reviewing their fundamentals connecting with local realities, and at the same time drawing inspiration from their cousins outside of Europe would enable them to become once again real avant-garde driving forces of artistic creation and of civic emancipation.