A scene from Far Flung, part of the Crack Theatre Festival program at TiNA 2014
In 1998, two new festivals were held simultaneously in the decaying industrial city of Newcastle, NSW: the National Young Writers’ Festival (NYWF) and the National Student Media Conference. Created by the arts incubator Octopod, and established by an informal collective of artists and students, the festivals quickly grew in size and strength, adding a roster of new festivals along the way, including the experimental electronic arts festival Electrofringe in 1999, the independent music conference Sound Summit in 2000, and in 2007, the Crack Theatre Festival, focused on contemporary, experimental and inter-disciplinary performance.
