How to start a new festival

Old festivals close but newcomers draw crowds. In a saturated market, how does a new festival get a foothold?
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Architecture in Helsinki will play the inaugural The Lost Lands. Photo by Michelle Tran.

From specialist film festivals and major international arts festivals, to weekend-long music celebrations and council-run activations of local shopping precincts, Australians love a good festival.

And while the music festival market has become crowded to the point of congestion, resulting in the closure of several such events in recent years (including Soundwave, the Future Music Festival, and the granddaddy of them all, the Big Day Out) other sectors show every sign of health.

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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