Festivals across the whole of Wales are to receive over £500,000 to showcase cultural and creative talent following an announcement made today by Arts Council of Wales.
The news follows a major funding review completed earlier in the year by Arts Council and demonstrates how new investment in the country’s leading festivals will be made through the Arts Lottery.
In this round of funding decisions, 11 festivals have been supported by the Arts Council across Wales, encompassing a wide range of activity from local community based festivals to major international events. The renowned Hay Festival receives new funds to build on its world‑wide reputation for attracting exciting writers, filmmakers, comedians, politicians and musicians to Wales for 10 days of inspiration and entertainment in May. The funding will also help Hay Festival to enhance its creative activities throughout the year.
Between September and March, Migrations (based in North Wales) will use their funding to raise the profile of some of the best in contemporary dance. By attracting some of Europe’s most important choreographers to Wales, audiences and dance artists will be able to see and experience some of the most interesting new developments in dance.
The other nine festivals who will receive awards range from the Vale of Glamorgan Festival to the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture’s Big Buzz, a festival and community celebration, guided by the artist, Andrew Logan. The Vale of Glamorgan Festival presents, annually, a mixed programme of international and Welsh composers and performers. Audiences have enthusiastically embraced the Festival’s philosophy of presenting high quality music from living composers in some of Wales’ most striking historic and contemporary settings. The Festival will develop a number of new initiatives and collaborative projects as part of the 2012 festival. These include the commissioning of a number of high profile composers including Phillip Glass, Qigang Chen and Per Norgard.
Dai Smith, Chair of Arts Council of Wales, said: "Wales’ festivals offer some of our most treasured cultural highlights, providing exciting new opportunities for people in Wales to see some of the best artists from around the world. These festivals also attract thousands of visitors to Wales each year from across the globe, making a vital contribution to the cultural reputation and economy of Wales.
We want to fund challenging, engaging, celebratory, inspiring festivals, events that are international in outlook, but which bear the hallmark of Wales. This is not a contradiction. With quality at their core, each of these festivals has an identity which draws strength from the special and unique characteristics of Wales, its communities and its artists."
Other festivals celebrating after clinching this investment of new funds are Hijinx Theatre’s Unity Festival and Locws International. The Unity Festival is an international arts festival first and foremost, but it is also the only festival of its kind in the UK that presents art and performance created by people with and without disability working together as equals.
Locws International works with contemporary artists to create new visual artworks and projects that respond to the culture and heritage of the city of Swansea, reinterpreting the city landscape in new and surprising ways.
Dai Smith concluded: "When we undertook our review of arts funding last year we were clear that enterprise, ambition and imagination would be rewarded. Today we make good on that promise with the first step in a new approach to supporting the very best of Wales’ festivals."