Running as a not-for-profit association since 1959, the Festival is based around the Abbey. Practically all of its functions are carried out on a voluntary basis by the administrators and members of the non-profit organisation. These tasks include, amongst others:
- Agreeing and fixing the programme for each season
- Booking artists and agreeing fees
- Managing the relationship with the Festivals de Wallonie
- Running the office
- Accounting functions
- Communications, media and publicity
- Researching and applying for sponsorship
- Ticketing
- Management and preparation of performance spaces
- Managing the catering for the cellars
- ....
The Festival’s financial strength derives from a number of sources, in large part from ticket receipts; also grants from the Wallonie-Bruxelles Federation and the German-Speaking Community of Belgium; from the Liège Province, Stavelot town council and Ardenne Prévoyante; sponsorship from the Festivals de Wallonie; and from generations gifts and donations. Mention should be made here too of the unstinting work and support of the Friends of the Festival, for whom there is always a special welcome as they come together each year.
We must also say a big thank you for the support that we receive from other local cultural institutions and organisations, such as E.T.C. (Espaces Tourisme et Culture) with its museums, the Stavelot-Trois-Ponts Cultural Centre, the Tourism Bureau, the Central Library, and the Galerie Triangle Bleu.
So we look both back over sixty-five seasons to those who established and nurtured our festival, who built its traditions of easy friendship combined with the highest standards of performance, and forwards, to the continuing development of the Festival into the future with these same values always in mind, a future that is safe in the hands of the present generation of volunteers and supporters.