The Arctic Fire Youth Festival is a festival created by and for young people. The festival is an important element in ensuring that young people influence the content of a cultural event, which in this case is a festival. It is also an important part of the programme for Kiruna, Capital of Culture 2029.

The two-day workshop in Kiruna includes work activities led by Mirjana Petrova Johansson and Björn Pettersson Thuri.

The aim is to enrich the Arctic Fire Youth Festival with ideas and collaborations and to become part of the KulturCrew Next project.

KulturCrew Next is a project funded by the Norrbotten Region, Sparbanken Nord and Riksteatern Norrbotten.

KulturCrew Next has the following objectives:
• To develop networks, offer training, coaching and a broader context for young cultural organisers in Norrbotten.
• To increase young adults' participation in civil society through co-creation in cultural life. Young adults' right to culture should be emphasised and made visible.
• To build and further develop an infrastructure for and around young adult cultural organisers, so that they can grow in their role, as non-profit cultural organisers or as first steps into the labour market.
• To offer meeting places for the exchange of experiences, inclusion in established non-profit cultural life and the cultural industry through collaborations, mentoring and internships.

The Norr Organisers Association is committed to promoting a vibrant cultural life in Norrbotten. Together, we strengthen and raise the profile of cultural organisers in Norrbotten through skills development, networking and targeted project initiatives.

It was founded in 2020 with the aim of promoting, together with other cultural organisations in Norrbotten, the development of audiences and organisers in the cultural area of Norrbotten.

The association grew out of the project of the same name launched by the Ebeneser Cultural Association in autumn 2017, based on the specific challenges and needs of organisers in the cultural sector. The aim of the project was to strengthen the identity and self-confidence of organisers through skills development, creating meeting places for networking and exchange of experiences.

During the project period, we began to build a platform that could have a significant impact on strengthening event organisers. We collaborated with project partners to offer comprehensive promotional initiatives for event organisers and saw the potential for an association to have the opportunity to manage targeted projects in the field of event organisation and audience development, in collaboration and between different organisations.

The association's activities
Since 2021, the association has been running the KulturCrew project in collaboration with Norrbottensmusiken. The association has received funding for the development of regional cultural activities from the Swedish Arts Council and the Norrbotten Region for the management of the SamArr Norr project. In 2022-2023, the association received project support from Sparbanken Nord for the development of a network of organisers. In 2024-2025, Sparbanken Nord also provided funding to further strengthen the activities of the Organisers' Network. In 2023, the association received operational support from the Norrbotten Region for the first time.

Thanks to the annual regional operational support from Norrbotten County Council, funding from Sparbanken Nord and membership fees, the association can work long-term and strategically to further develop organisers in Norrbotten, offering extensive skills development initiatives and networking meetings.

The funding enables the association to collaborate on membership recruitment activities. The aim of membership is to contribute to a sustainable infrastructure of organisers through collaboration and co-creation. Membership is open to both legal entities and public and private organisations, and is constantly being expanded.

Purpose
The organiser forms the basis of the cultural infrastructure and consists of associations, institutions, municipalities, student unions, schools, congregations, companies, non-profit actors and local private initiatives.

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