A scene from Philip Glass’ opera The Perfect American. Photo by Richard Hubert Smith.
As he prepares for his final Brisbane Festival as Artistic Director, Noel Staunton says he can walk away from the role knowing that the festival has truly been embraced by its host city.
From its origins in the 1960s as the Warana Festival, and later in 2009 as an amalgamation of the annual RiverFestival and biennial Brisbane Festival, the festival’s relationship with the local citizenry has not always been smooth, thanks in part to flexible dates that saw it staged anywhere in the year from July to September. Now, however, ‘Brisbane has a sense of ownership of the festival,’ Staunton said.
