Australian festivals have turned their back on Asia

Instead of encouraging an artistic conversation with our neighbours, our festivals tend to focus on European culture.
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Margaret Leng Tan’s Cabinet of Curiousities has its Adelaide premiere at this year’s OzAsia Festival. Photo credit: Kong Chong Yew.  

Across the world, from Eurovision to the Santiago a Mil International Theatre Festival, cultural conversations between nations tend to be strongest among geo-political neighbours. But not in Australia, argues Andrew Ross, Artistic Director of the Darwin Festival.

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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