Arts festival

An Arts Festival is an umbrella-term for a festival that focuses on multiple art genres including fine art (painting, drawing, pottery), music, photography, film, and other visual styles.[8] Fringe festivals are a type of arts festival, often focusing on many arts but sometimes focusing on a specific art such as theater more than others.[1] Some subgenres of an arts festival include art fairs, theater festivals, dance festivals, film festivals, music festivals (pop festivals) and more.

An art fair is a subgenre of arts festival that focuses on visual art specifically, or specific fields of visual art such as new media art festivals. Other subgenres of art festivals are termed photography festivals or street art festivals, for example. Typically, an art fair has a wide range of artists, art dealers, collectors, and curators who buy or sell artwork in a venue, or gallery, that is open to the public. Some items for sale include photography, paintings, drawings, metalwork, handcrafted items and pottery.

Festivals of visual arts are also not to be confused with commercial art fairs. Artists participate in the most important of such festival exhibitions by invitation, and these exhibitions (e.g. the Venice Biennale) are organised by internationally recognized curators chosen by a committee of peers. Conversely art fairs are market-oriented shows where art dealers exhibit and sell the work of the artists they represent.

The first drama festival was in 543BC, at the Athenian Great Dionysia. At the drama festivals, playwrights and poets competed to have their plays performed, and the actors competed to win the title for best performance. The performances were given in semi-circular auditorium cut into hillsides and capable of seating 10,000–20,000 people. The stage consisted of a dancing floor, an orchestra, dressing room and scene-building area, known as a skene. The actors were typically men who wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts.[9]

Film festivals are organized events, usually staged by universities, private organizations, local governments, or arts associations, that show films in cinemas or screening venues and provide filmmakers a chance to get notable recognition among fellow film enthusiasts. Films can include international and domestic releases and can even be on a specific film-maker, genre or subject matter. Film festivals are typically annual events and can feature full-length or short films.

One of the most notable Film Festivals is the Sundance Film Festival, which originated from Salt Lake City in 1984 as part of the Sundance Institute organization and was founded by Robert Redford. To this date, it is one of the largest independent cinema festivals in the United States.[10]

Poetry festivals are organized events staged by poetry and literature groups, local arts associations, private organizations and others that showcase contemporary poetry and provide a chance for poets to meet each other, celebrate poetry, critique each other's work and debate poetic issues. Poets can include international, national and local writers, and can include a specific theme. They are often held in a particular location over set dates. In contrast to literary festivals, poetry festivals put poetry centre stage. Poetry Festivals are typically annual events. Festivals established for more than 10 years in the UK include the festivals at Aldeburgh,[11] Ledbury[12] and Torbay,[13] and the Stanza Poetry festival in Scotland.[14] In India, a number of popular poetry festivals and in Northeast India, Guwahati Grand Poetry festival and Assam Arts Biennale, which began in 2018, are the first of its kind in the region.