News

Are festivals ‘fundamentally unjustifiable’?

Perth International Arts Festival’s Jonathan Holloway gave delegates at the recent APACA conference a frank insight into arts festivals with his controversial comment that they can be seen as 'fundamentally unjustifiable'.

11 Jul 2014

Richard Watts

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Writing and Publishing

Les Studios de Cirque’s Place des Anges opened the 2012 Perth Festival in spectacular fashion. Image via perthandotherplaces.blogspot.com.au

Unlike performing arts venues, which exist 365 days of the year, arts festivals are relatively ephemeral and are consequently significantly harder to justify to both the general public and to governments, said Holloway, who has been Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival since 2012 and was formerly Artistic Director of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival in the UK.

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts