Festivals and the familiar: tradition vs innovation

How do festival directors navigate the tensions between honouring a festival’s past versus celebrating the innovative and the new?

19 Dec 2017 12:00

Richard Watts

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Writing and Publishing

Image: WA Ballet’s Milky Way – Ballet at the Quarry; image supplied.

Not everyone loves a surprise.

For many, the thrill of a subscription season announcement or a festival program launch lies in discovering something new, something unexpected. For many, but not all.

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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