Melbourne Festival announces new Artistic Director

Josephine Ridge's replacement will commence work in April, to begin programming the 2016 Melbourne Festival.
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Photo credit: Toni Wilkinson 

Jonathan Holloway has been announced as the new Artistic Director of the Melbourne Festival. He will present his first Festival program in 2016.

A theatre director, playwright, dramaturg, programmer and festival director, Holloway has been Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival since 2012. Between 500,000 and one million people have engaged with the Festival each year during his time in Perth, which has seen Holloway commission and present such artists as Ennio Morricone, the English National Opera, Lucinda Childs Dance Company, Philip Glass and The Berliner Ensemble.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts