Perth Festival, named Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) between 2000 and 2017, and sometimes referred to as the Festival of Perth, is Australia's longest-running cultural

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

, held annually in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. The program features

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

and classical music, dance, theatre, performance, literature and ideas,

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

, large-scale public works. The main events of the festival take place every year, from February to March and the film program now known as Lotterywest Films runs from November to April, as part of the Perth Festival. Perth Festival takes place and various indoor and outdoor venues across Perth. The festival is run by UWA in partnership with the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

and the

Perth City Council The City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perth metropolitan area, which is the capital of Western Australia. The local government is commonly known as Perth City Council. The City covers the Perth city centre and sur ...

. From 2004, the Festival carried

Lotterywest Lotterywest was established in 1932 as the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia, to run the lottery in Western Australia. It is referred to in the legislation as the Lotteries Commission. It distributes profits to a number of community bene ...

branding, and Lotterywest was acknowledged as the Festival's "principal partner". The artistic director for 2020 to 2023 is

Iain Grandage Iain Andrew Grandage is an Australian composer and music director, best known for his compositions for theatre, dance and concert. In May 2018, the Perth Festival appointed Grandage as artistic director. Early life Grandage initially lived in B ...

History

The festival was created in 1953 by the University of Western Australia, making it the oldest international arts festival in Australia, and the oldest annual international multi-arts festival in the southern hemisphere. The founder of the festival was a then UWA professor, Fred Alexander, Director of Adult Education, who was inspired by attending the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

in 1951. Alexander's aim was "to offer the best cultural events that are available from British, European, American, Asian and Australian sources". The first festival, held in 1953, showcased theatre,

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

and film, drawing an audience of 42,000 people despite little publicity. It was held over the summer school holidays in January, for

Summer School Summer school (or summer university) is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, or provided by a private company, that provides lessons and activities during the summer vacation. Participation in summer school ...

students, arranged by John Birman as a more formal extension of his previous summer school programmes.Series page
/ref> The drama students would create outdoor productions starting in 1953 and continuing to 1969 directed by Jeana Bradley. In 1964, the Shakespeare's 400th anniversary, the

New Fortune Theatre University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UWA was established in 1911 by ...

opened in the Arts Building with a production of Hamlet directed by Jeanna Bradley. The theatre was (then) the only

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

of the 1599 London

Fortune Playhouse The Fortune Playhouse was an historic theatre in London. It was located between Whitecross Street, London, Whitecross Street and the modern Golden Lane, London, Golden Lane, just outside the City of London. It was founded about 1600, and suppre ...

. Another notable anniversary for the festival were its 21st anniversary coinciding with the opening of the Perth Concert Hall, and in 1979 festival it celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of the colony in 1829. In 1987 the festival opened at the same time as the final races of the

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

yacht race. The festival expanded off-campus citywide in the 1960s, and by 1980 had hugely increased its audience, with an increase of 300 percent in paid attendances between 1976 and 1980. Some sources refer to it as the Festival of Perth in the 1980s. The festival broadened its appeal, in 1999 the newly appointed artistic director,

Séan Doran Seán Padraig Doran (born 1960) is an artistic director who was chief executive of the English National Opera from 2003 to 2005. He was educated at St Columb's College and the University of East Anglia (BA, Music). After commencing a career as ...

, announced a change of name to the Perth International Arts Festival, leading up to its 50th anniversary in 2003. In 2004, the festival started carrying the Lotterywest branding, and Lotterywest was referred to as its "principal partner" in all communications. With new artistic director

Lindy Hume Lindy Hume (born 25 August 1961) is an Australian opera and festival director, who has worked throughout Australia and internationally. Early life Hume was born in the Sydney suburb of Paddington and grew up in Glebe and Annandale. Her fathe ...

and a new four-year strategic plan, there was a significant shift in direction for the festival: towards increased community involvement, and developing stronger partnerships with local arts organisations and regional centres. The branding was changed to simply "Perth Festival" by then director

Wendy Martin Wendy is a given name generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, a male Captain Wendy Oxford was identified by the Leveller John Lilburne as a spy reporting on his activitie ...

and the board in 2018, although the registered company name was still Perth International Arts Festival, as "the organiser of Perth Festival".

Artistic directors

* John Birman (1955–1974) *

David Blenkinsop David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

(1975–1999) *

(2000–2003) *

(2004–2007) *

Shelagh Magadza Shelagh may refer to: * Shelagh Alexander (1959–2018), Canadian artist known for her photographic works * Shelagh Armstrong (born 1961), Canadian illustrator * Shelagh Burrow (born 1950), English diver * Shelagh Delaney (1939–2011), British pl ...

(2008–2011) * Jonathan Holloway (2012–2015) *

(2016–2019) *

(2020–2023)

Executive directors

the executive director is Nathan Bennett.

Description

Activities across the state include

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

, dance, music, film,

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. Artists from around the world have participated in the festival.

Writers Festival

Earlier Perth Festivals had poetry and literature as a component of the larger festival. By the 1990s the Perth Writers Festival was titled and marketed separately, for some time known as the Alcoa Perth Writers Festival (named after its sponsor,

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

). By the 2000s the Writers Festival was well recognised by publishers from interstate and overseas. Keynote speakers and featured authors since then have included notable writers from Australia and overseas, such as

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...

Ahdaf Soueif Ahdaf Soueif (; born 23 March 1950) is an Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator. Early life Soueif was born in Cairo, where she lives, and was educated in Egypt and England. She studied for a PhD in linguistics at the Universit ...

(2013 opener),

Ben Okri Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri (born 15 March 1959) is a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist.Ben Okri" ...

Esi Edugyan Esi Edugyan (born 1978) is a Canadian novelist.Donna Bailey Nurse"Writing the blues". ''Quill & Quire'', July 2011. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels '' Half-Blood Blues'' (2011) and '' Washington Black'' (2018). Biography Esi Ed ...

and

Chloe Hooper Chloe Melisande Hooper (born 1973) is an Australian author. Her first novel, '' A Child's Book of True Crime'' (2002), was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Literature and was a ''New York Times'' Notable Book. In 2005, she turned to repo ...

. It retained the branding as Perth Writers Festival, taking place for three days over a weekend, until it was extended to a run for a full week in 2018, when it changed to Perth Writers Week. It took place not only at the University Club of Western Australia, but also in

public libraries ''Public Libraries'' is the official publication of the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It is devoted exclusively to public libraries. The print edition is published six times a year and i ...

, in bars and on the streets of the city. This continued in 2019. In 2020 the programme was pared back to a weekend, and marketed as the Perth Festival's Literature & Ideas Weekend. The Literature & Ideas curator was author

Sisonke Msimang Sisonke Msimang is a South African-Australian writer, activist and political analyst based in Perth, Western Australia, whose focus is on race, gender, and politics. She is known for her memoir ''Always Another Country: A memoir of exile and ho ...

Film programs

1953–1985

Films formed part of the Perth Festival's offerings since its inception in January 1953, being shown at the Somerville Auditorium at UWA. The first artistic director, John Birman, introduced many foreign films, and there was resistance at first. In 1957 a French film festival was held, and in 1959 the festival became for Birman "the establishment of an international film festival within the festival". David Blenkinsop, taking over the reins of the Perth Festival in 1977, had a bigger budget to work with, and along with Sherry Hopkins, brought in a system whereby a committee would preview all films before deciding whether to include them in the film festival. Audiences rose from 21,000 in 1977 to 65,000 in 1985, but the festival was no longer bringing new films into the country, leaving that to Sydney and Melbourne. It did, however, make the Festival of Perth unique, being the only arts festival that had a successful film component attached to it.

1986 to present

With the Lotterywest rebranding and its acknowledgement as "principal partner" of PIAF in 2004, it was in this year that the film component took on the title of Lotterywest Films, and variants. In 2010, Madeleine Bates, was appointed to the role of Program Manager: Film, after being head of film screenings at the

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...

. and for some years previously, the film festival part of the Perth Festival is known as Lotterywest Films. The film manager is Tom Vincent.

Funding

The festival was founded by and has operated from the University of Western Australia Nedlands campus since 1953. The University of Western Australia further supports the festival through the provision of services and resources.

has supported the festival financially since 1992. The festival also relies on corporate sponsors and partnerships for funding, with new organisations becoming involved each year.

Corporate partners

Perth International Arts Festival SMC 2010

During a performance of Driving into Walls

The array of corporate partners changes each year, however some partners have committed to long term sponsorship of the festival. The partners are separated into six distinct groups: #Partners #Leadership partners #Major Partners #Public Funding Partners #Trusts #International Partners Significant long term partners include Lotterywest and

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

Festival venues

Venues for festival events have included: * Somerville Auditorium,

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

* Joondalup Pines * His Majesty's Theatre *

State Theatre Centre of Western Australia The State Theatre Centre of Western Australia is a theatre complex located within the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. The larger of three dedicated performance areas is known as the Heath Ledger Theatre in honour of Perth-born f ...

* Festival Gardens,

Perth Cultural Centre The Perth Cultural Centre is an area of central Perth, Western Australia, near the James Street Mall. It is home to a number of cultural institutions including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, State Library o ...

* Regal Theatre * ABC Perth Studios * Octagon Theatre UWA * Subiaco Arts Centre * Perth Concert Hall *

St Georges Terrace St Georges Terrace (colloquially known as "The Terrace") is the main street in the city of Perth, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River and forms the major arterial thoroughfare through the central business district. Its ...

* Nedlands Park Masonic Hall *

Fremantle Arts Centre The Fremantle Arts Centre is a historic building complex on Ord Street in Fremantle, Western Australia. The heritage-listed building complex was built using convict labour between 1861 and 1868 and was used as a psychiatric hospital, initiall ...

* Red Hill Auditorium *

Cottesloe Beach Cottesloe Beach is a popular beach in Cottesloe, Western Australia, Cottesloe and one of the most iconic locations of Western Australia. The enduring popularity of the beach is the result of combination of factors including proximity to Perth me ...

Quarry Amphitheatre The Quarry Amphitheatre is an outdoor venue located close to the ocean in City Beach, Western Australia. It has a sprung wooden stage and changing facilities for around 80 performers. It was officially opened on 9 November 1986 and is owned a ...

* Winthrop Hall,

* Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery * John Curtin Gallery,

Curtin University Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public university, public research university based in Bentley, Western Australia, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. ...

Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) is a contemporary visual and performance arts venue located in a heritage-listed building in Perth, Western Australia. History 1896–1959: Schools The building at 53 James Street, Northbridge, James ...

Crown Perth Crown Perth (formerly Burswood Island Casino, Burswood Island Complex and Burswood Entertainment Complex) is a resort and casino located in Burswood, Western Australia, near the Swan River. The resort consists of a casino, a convention centre ...

Theatre *

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory body, statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, WA Museum Boola Bardip, is located i ...

State Library of Western Australia The State Library of Western Australia is a research, education, reference and public lending library located in the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. It is a portfolio agency of the Western Australia Department of Local Gover ...

* Former

Playhouse Theatre The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt in ...

* State Theatre Centre of Western Australia

Selected festivals

2012 festival

The 2012 festival was the 60th Perth International Arts Festival. This year attracted 194,522 paid audience members and a total attendance figure of over 700,000. The opening of the festival featured a 'DAWN:DUSK' opening, where hundreds of people gathered on

to watch vocalists and musicians. The festival was held from 10 February to 4 March, and was the first year led by new artistic director, Jonathan Holloway. A number of events sold out during this year's festival, including tickets to

Bon Iver Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Vernon had originally formed Bon Iver as a solo project, but it eventually became a band consisting of Vernon (vocals, guit ...

2013 festival

The 2013 festival was held from 8 February to 2 March. With 750 artists, 820 events and 250 film screenings, it is the biggest yet. This year marked the announcement of a new significant partner,

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...

. This partnership was recognised through the renaming of the Festival Gardens to Chevron Festival Gardens. At the 2012/2013 Lotterywest Films, 26 films were screened, with the winner of the BHP Billiton audience award being ''

The First Grader ''The First Grader'' is a 2011 Biographical film, biographical drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. It stars Naomie Harris, Oliver Litondo, and Tony Kgoroge. The film is inspired by the true story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan farmer who enrolled ...

'', directed by Justin Chadwick. This year also featured sold-out event,

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were an American Hip hop music, hip hop duo from Seattle, Seattle, Washington, formed in 2009 by rapper MacklemoreTrust, Gary (2013)Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' 'Can't Hold Us' Makes Hot 100 History, ''Billboard (magazine), B ...

, who played at the Chevron City Gardens.

2014 festival

The 2014 festival was the 62nd Perth International Arts Festival held from 7 February until 1 March 2014.

Live @ The Watershed

2001 Festival

The festival had an outdoor concert series that featured an elaborate venue that transformed a common area of the city into a water themed futuristic type atmosphere. It was held over the pond area outside of the Art Gallery Of Western Australia and the Perth Cultural Centre. The festival spanned 26 days and headlined by acts such as the

Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...

and

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

, both of which sold out the venue.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.perthfestival.com.au/ Festivals in Perth, Western Australia Film festivals established in 1953 1953 establishments in Australia Film festivals in Western Australia Literary festivals in Australia Theatre festivals in Australia Music festivals in Western Australia