The challenge of programming festivals for more than one city

The Artistic Directors of major festivals in Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and other mainland capitals only have to satisfy their local stakeholders. Not so for Tasmanian festivals like Mona Foma and Ten Days on the Island.

Festivals reflect the culture of the cities in which they’re held – perhaps even the personality of the city in question.

Getting the program right, therefore, is a particular talent. It requires considerably more than just assembling a shopping list of arts events; it’s about intuiting what will resonate with the local population and determining what’s missing in the local arts calendar every other week of the year.

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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