New Annual curator Adrian Burnett on the value of the festival

New Annual curator Adrian Burnett answers the question, 'What kind of reputation is the festival getting outside of Newcastle?'

Transcript

00:00Adrian, what kind of reputation is the New Annual Festival getting outside of the City

00:05of Newcastle?

00:06Look, we've really seen the Festival grow.

00:10This is the fourth New Annual for the City of Newcastle and we've seen the reputation

00:14of New Annual just growing year on year.

00:17The artists that we've worked with both locally and nationally are so keen to present their

00:22work here in Newcastle.

00:25I think that the audiences are really starting to understand what this can mean for the city

00:31in terms of culture, the arts, and just generally connecting more to the city in deeper and

00:38more meaningful ways.

00:40We already know that Newcastle is a fantastic destination, but the New Annual and the ability

00:46for people to be able to look forward to it at the end of September and the October school

00:51holidays each year, I think is so important, something for people to look forward to each

00:54year and to discover new artists each year as we iterate with the curation of the program

01:02and we build.

01:03Sometimes we're bringing back artists like this year, for example, with Dad's North,

01:08with Wayfinder.

01:09We're bringing them back because we know that the audiences love them and we're always able

01:13to introduce new art forms, new ideas, different ways of telling stories.

01:19So every year, people know they've got something to look forward to and there's something that

01:24they can be really proud of as a city.