Perth Festival

The Perth International Arts Festival is Australia's longest running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, opera, visual arts, large-scale public works, Lotterywest Film Festival and the Perth Writers Festival. The festival runs every year from February to March, the Lotterywest Film Festival runs from November to April, and the Perth Writers Festival occurs in February. The artistic director from 2012 to 2014 was Jonathan Holloway.

The festival was created in 1953 by the University of Western Australia, making it the oldest international arts festival in Australia, and the oldest annual international multi-arts festival in the southern hemisphere Activities across the state include theatre, dance, music, film, visual arts and literature. Artists from around the world have participated in the festival.

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.

The festival also relies on corporate sponsors and partnerships for funding, with new organisations becoming involved each year.

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:

Significant long term partners include Rio Tinto, Lotterywest and Wesfarmers.

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 February 10-March 4, 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.

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