Salisbury International Arts Festival (founded in 1974) is an annual multi-arts festival that delivers over 150 arts events each year in and around the city of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

, England. Events include concerts, comedy, poetry, dance, exhibitions, outdoor spectacles, and commissioned works. The festival makes use of the surrounding landscape, hosting events in settings including the ancient circles of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

, Old Wardour Castle, the Wiltshire chalk downs, and

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buildi ...

. Every four years a new director is chosen to deliver the annual festival. In 2018 the festival organisers amalgamated with

Salisbury Playhouse Salisbury Playhouse is a theatre in the English city of Salisbury, Wiltshire. It was built in 1976 and comprises the 517-seat Main House and the 149-seat Salberg, a rehearsal room and a community & education space. It is part of Arts Council En ...

and Salisbury Arts Centre to form Wiltshire Creative.

2016

* Festival director: Toby Smith * Festival dates: 27 May – 11 June 2016 This year there was a focus on Aotearoa New Zealand described as 'a distant land defined by Māori culture and its fusion with European and contemporary Pacific island traditions'. Featured artists included Trygve Wakenshaw, Corey Baker Dance, writers

Witi Ihimaera Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler (; born 7 February 1944) is a New Zealand author. Raised in the small town of Waituhi, he decided to become a writer as a teenager after being convinced that Māori people were ignored or mischaracterised in literat ...

and

Fiona Farrell Fiona Farrell (born 1947) is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright. Early years and education Fiona Farrell was born and raised in Oamaru, in the South Island of New Zealand. She attended Waitaki Girls' High Sc ...

, theatre performances of ''Beards! Beards! Beards!'' (Show Pony), ''The Bookbinder'' (Trick of the Light) and ''The Pianist'' (

Thomas Monckton Thomas "Thom" Monckton is an entertainer from Patea, South Taranaki, New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the S ...

). The music line up was the Modern Maori Quartet,

New Zealand String Quartet The New Zealand String Quartet (established 1987) is New Zealand's only full-time string quartet. The current formation of musicians consists of Helene Pohl (1st violin), Monique Lapins (2nd violin), Gillian Ansell (viola) and Rolf Gjelsten (ce ...

, Benjamin Baker (violinist) and

Jonathan Lemalu Jonathan Fa'afetai Lemalu (born 1976) is a New Zealand bass baritone opera singer. Born to Samoan parents who had emigrated to New Zealand, he was educated in Dunedin. His first singing teacher was Honor McKellar, who began teaching him while ...

. Visual art was represented by Benjamin Work, ''The Glorious Children of Te Tumu'' and Caro Williams, ''Call and Response.''

2015

* Festival director: Toby Smith * Festival dates: 22 May – 6 June 2015 In his second year as Festival Director, Toby Smith continued a four-year journey tracing the passage of the sun from night to day. Focusing on the glorious Eastern dawn, the arts and culture of the Middle East took centre stage this year. Some of the finest Middle-Eastern artists brought music, poetry, film and photography inspired by their rich cultural history, as well as the usual variety of brilliantly talented UK artists.

2014

* Festival director: Toby Smith * Festival dates: 23 May – 7 June 2014 The 2014 Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival marked the start of a four year journey that will go on to track the passage of our sun across night and day, from an eastern sunrise to a western sunset. This was the year of the midnight sun, inspired by the theme of contrast in lightness and dark, in particular the fire and ice of Nordic lands.

2013

* Festival director: Maria Bota * Festival dates: 24 May – 8 June 2013 In 2013 Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival celebrated the arts of Catalonia with powerful, feisty and witty work from the area around Barcelona.

2012

* Festival director: Maria Bota * Festival dates: 25 May – 9 June 2012 The themes for the 2012 festival were Brazil's rich cultural heritage, the Olympics and fire. Celebration was in the air as 2012 marked both the 40th anniversary of the festival and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Salisbury International Arts Festival staged the Fire Garden at Stonehenge in July 2012 as part of the

Cultural Olympiad An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not until ...

, attracting 10,000 visitors.

Ageas Ageas is a Belgian multinational insurance company co-headquartered in Brussels. Ageas is Belgium's largest insurer and operates in 14 countries worldwide. The company was renamed from Fortis Holding in April 2010 and consists of those insurance ...

became principal sponsor of the festival and its full name was amended to Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival.

2011

* Festival director: Maria Bota * Festival dates: 20 May – 4 June 2011 The main themes for the 2011 festival were China, dance and physical form and air, with birds and kites flying high throughout the festival.

2010

* Festival director: Maria Bota * Festival dates: 21 May – 5 June 2010 The main themes for the 2010 festival were Russia, stories, stone and chalk. Inspired by the Wiltshire White Horses cut into the landscape, the theme of the horse also appeared throughout the programme.

2009

* Festival director: Maria Bota * Festival dates: 22 May – 6 June 2009 Salisbury International Arts Festival 2009 was named 'Tourism Event of the Year' at South West Tourism’s 'Tourism Excellence Awards'.Tourism Excellence Awards
/ref> The first year of new festival director, Maria Bota, saw a series of themes—'India’, ‘spirit’ and ‘water’—woven throughout the programme. East met West in a programme of events from the festival’s featured artist

Kuljit Bhamra Kuljit Bhamra MBE Hon DMus (born 1959) is a British composer, record producer and musician whose main instrument is the tabla. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborati ...

—composer, producer and virtuoso

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

player. 2009 also saw an expanded programme of outdoor events with activities scattered throughout the city, enabling audiences to stumble upon the festival in unexpected and unanticipated ways.

2008

* Festival director: Jo Metcalf * Festival dates: 23 May – 8 June 2008

2007

* Festival director: Jo Metcalf This festival focused on the themes of

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, movement and water. There were many acts from many countries in Central and South America including

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. Also, in this year, the festival formed a partnership with the Living River Project to bring water-themed events to Salisbury.

2006

* Festival director: Jo Metcalf The 2006 festival programme reflected the theme of 'Relate': how people connect with one another locally and as a global community. There was a strong artistic emphasis on storytelling, recurring motifs relating to the environment and atmosphere, and images of wings, clouds, birds, fairytales, myths, and dreams. These themes were exemplified in the Aboriginal Cultural Showcase, which featured a wide range of indigenous Australian artists, many of whom were visiting the UK for the first time.

2005

* Festival director: Jo Metcalf This was Jo Metcalf's first festival. Memorable events from the 2005 festival include the making of a sand mandala in the Cathedral Close and a performance by

Tibetan monk Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

s at

. There was also a strong literature programme this year.

References

External links

*{{Official website
The Living River Project
Music festivals in Wiltshire Salisbury