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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 Arts festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features Popular music and classical music, dance, theatre, performance, literature and ideas, visual arts, 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 and the Perth City Council. From 2004, the Festival carried Lotterywest branding, and Lotterywest was acknowledged as the Festival's "principal partner".
The artistic director for 2025 to 2028 is Anna Reece.
The founder of the festival was a then UWA professor, Fred Alexander, Director of Adult Education, who was inspired by attending the Edinburgh Festival 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 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 students, arranged by John Birman as a more formal extension of his previous summer school programmes. Series page 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 opened in the Arts Building with a production of Hamlet directed by Jeanna Bradley. The theatre was (then) the only replica of the 1599 London Fortune Playhouse. 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 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, 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 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 and the board in 2018, although the registered company name was still Perth International Arts Festival, as "the organiser of Perth Festival".
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, Hilary Mantel, Ahdaf Soueif (2013 opener), Ben Okri, Esi Edugyan and Chloe Hooper.
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, 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.
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.
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 festival also relies on corporate sponsors and partnerships for funding, with new organisations becoming involved each year.
Significant long term partners include Lotterywest and Wesfarmers.
At the 2012/2013 Lotterywest Films, 26 films were screened, with the winner of the BHP Billiton audience award being The First Grader, directed by Justin Chadwick. This year also featured sold-out event, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who played at the Chevron City Gardens.
Artistic directors
Executive directors
the executive director is Nathan Bennett.
Description
Activities across the state include theatre, dance, music, film, visual arts and literature. 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).
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".
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.
and for some years previously, the film festival part of the Perth Festival is known as '''Lotterywest Films'''. Tom Vincent was film manager from 2014 to 2024. He was succeeded by Madeline Bates, who returned to the Festival as Film Curator in mid-2024.
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. Lotterywest has supported the festival financially since 1992.
Corporate partners
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:
Festival venues
Venues for festival events have included:
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 Cottesloe Beach 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.
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. This partnership was recognised through the renaming of the Festival Gardens to Chevron Festival 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 and Proton, both of which sold out the venue.Watershed Festival Program 2001
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