Festivals and the familiar: tradition vs innovation

How do festival directors navigate the tensions between honouring a festival’s past versus celebrating the innovative and the new?
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Image: WA Ballet’s Milky Way – Ballet at the Quarry; image supplied.

Not everyone loves a surprise.

For many, the thrill of a subscription season announcement or a festival program launch lies in discovering something new, something unexpected. For many, but not all.

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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