Festivals fight for independence

Festival directors around the country have reacted with concern to the proposed merger of Adelaide Festival and the Adelaide Festival Centre.
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Francisco Goya’s Fight With Cudgels/Lucha con palos (detail), Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain via www.wikiart.org 

International arts festivals have different needs from major performing arts centres, and need to stand apart from them for the mutual benefit of the arts ecologies in their respective cities, say some of Australia’s leading festival directors.

Their comments come as one of Australia’s best known arts festivals, the Adelaide Festival, is facing a merger bid. As previously reported by ArtsHub, a potential merger between Adelaide Festival and the Adelaide Festival Centre is currently being discussed by the South Australian Government and the Boards of the two organisations.

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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