The arts festival revolution
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0:01 - 0:04Sydney. I had been waiting my whole life to get to Sydney.
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0:04 - 0:07I got to the airport, to the hotel, checked in,
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0:07 - 0:10and, sitting there in the lobby, was a brochure
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0:10 - 0:13for the Sydney Festival. I thumbed through it,
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0:13 - 0:16and I came across a show called "Minto: Live."
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0:16 - 0:20The description read: "The suburban streets of Minto
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0:20 - 0:22become the stage for performances
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0:22 - 0:24created by international artists
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0:24 - 0:27in collaboration with the people of Minto."
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0:27 - 0:30What was this place called Minto?
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0:30 - 0:32Sydney, as I would learn, is a city of suburbs,
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0:32 - 0:36and Minto lies southwest, about an hour away.
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0:36 - 0:39I have to say, it wasn't exactly what I had in mind
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0:39 - 0:41for my first day down under.
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0:41 - 0:44I mean, I'd thought about the Harbour Bridge or Bondi Beach,
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0:44 - 0:47but Minto? But still, I'm a producer,
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0:47 - 0:50and the lure of a site-specific theater project
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0:50 - 0:52was more than I could resist. (Laughter)
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0:52 - 0:55So, off I went into Friday afternoon traffic,
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0:55 - 0:57and I'll never forget what I saw when I got there.
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0:57 - 1:00For the performance, the audience walked
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1:00 - 1:03around the neighborhood from house to house,
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1:03 - 1:05and the residents, who were the performers,
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1:05 - 1:08they came out of their houses, and they performed
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1:08 - 1:11these autobiographical dances on their lawns,
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1:11 - 1:14on their driveways. (Laughter)
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1:14 - 1:17The show is a collaboration with a U.K.-based
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1:17 - 1:19performance company called Lone Twin.
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1:19 - 1:21Lone Twin had come to Minto and worked
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1:21 - 1:24with the residents, and they had created these dances.
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1:24 - 1:28This Australian-Indian girl, she came out and started
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1:28 - 1:30to dance on her front lawn,
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1:30 - 1:33and her father peered out the window to see
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1:33 - 1:36what all the noise and commotion was about,
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1:36 - 1:38and he soon joined her.
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1:38 - 1:41And he was followed by her little sister.
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1:41 - 1:44And soon they were all dancing this joyous,
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1:44 - 1:48exuberant dance right there on their lawn. (Laughter)
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1:48 - 1:50And as I walked through the neighborhood,
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1:50 - 1:55I was amazed and I was moved by the incredible
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1:55 - 1:57sense of ownership this community clearly felt
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1:57 - 2:00about this event.
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2:00 - 2:03"Minto: Live" brought Sydneysiders into dialogue
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2:03 - 2:06with international artists, and really celebrated
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2:06 - 2:09the diversity of Sydney on its own terms.
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2:09 - 2:13The Sydney Festival which produced "Minto: Live" I think
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2:13 - 2:17represents a new kind of 21st-century arts festival.
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2:17 - 2:20These festivals are radically open.
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2:20 - 2:24They can transform cities and communities.
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2:24 - 2:27To understand this, I think it kind of makes sense
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2:27 - 2:29to look where we've come from.
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2:29 - 2:31Modern arts festivals were born
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2:31 - 2:33in the rubble of World War II.
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2:33 - 2:35Civic leaders created these annual events
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2:35 - 2:38to celebrate culture as the highest
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2:38 - 2:41expression of the human spirit.
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2:41 - 2:44In 1947, the Edinburgh Festival was born
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2:44 - 2:47and Avignon was born and hundreds of others
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2:47 - 2:49would follow in their wake.
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2:49 - 2:52The work they did was very, very high art,
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2:52 - 2:55and stars came along like Laurie Anderson
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2:55 - 2:57and Merce Cunningham and Robert Lepage
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2:57 - 2:58who made work for this circuit,
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2:58 - 3:01and you had these seminal shows like "The Mahabharata"
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3:01 - 3:04and the monumental "Einstein on the Beach."
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3:04 - 3:06But as the decades passed,
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3:06 - 3:10these festivals, they really became the establishment,
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3:10 - 3:13and as the culture and capital accelerated,
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3:13 - 3:15the Internet brought us all together,
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3:15 - 3:18high and low kind of disappeared,
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3:18 - 3:20a new kind of festival emerged.
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3:20 - 3:23The old festivals, they continued to thrive, but
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3:23 - 3:27from Brighton to Rio to Perth, something new was emerging,
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3:27 - 3:30and these festivals were really different.
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3:30 - 3:33They're open, these festivals, because, like in Minto,
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3:33 - 3:35they understand that the dialogue
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3:35 - 3:39between the local and the global is essential.
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3:39 - 3:43They're open because they ask the audience to be a player,
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3:43 - 3:48a protagonist, a partner, rather than a passive spectator,
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3:48 - 3:51and they're open because they know that imagination
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3:51 - 3:54cannot be contained in buildings,
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3:54 - 3:55and so much of the work they do
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3:55 - 3:59is site-specific or outdoor work.
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3:59 - 4:02So, the new festival, it asks the audience to play
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4:02 - 4:05an essential role in shaping the performance.
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4:05 - 4:10Companies like De La Guarda, which I produce, and Punchdrunk
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4:10 - 4:13create these completely immersive experiences
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4:13 - 4:16that put the audience at the center of the action,
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4:16 - 4:19but the German performance company Rimini Protokoll
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4:19 - 4:23takes this all to a whole new level.
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4:23 - 4:26In a series of shows that includes "100 Percent Vancouver,"
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4:26 - 4:30"100 Percent Berlin," Rimini Protokoll makes shows
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4:30 - 4:33that actually reflect society.
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4:33 - 4:38Rimini Protokoll chooses 100 people that represent that city
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4:38 - 4:41at that moment in terms of race and gender and class,
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4:41 - 4:45through a careful process that begins three months before,
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4:45 - 4:48and then those 100 people share stories about
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4:48 - 4:50themselves and their lives, and the whole thing
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4:50 - 4:55becomes a snapshot of that city at that moment.
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4:55 - 4:58LIFT has always been a pioneer in the use of venues.
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4:58 - 5:01They understand that theater and performance
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5:01 - 5:02can happen anywhere.
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5:02 - 5:05You can do a show in a schoolroom,
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5:05 - 5:08in an airport, — (Laughter) —
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5:08 - 5:10in a department store window.
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5:10 - 5:15Artists are explorers. Who better to show us the city anew?
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5:15 - 5:18Artists can take us to a far-flung part of the city
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5:18 - 5:20that we haven't explored, or they can take us into
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5:20 - 5:24that building that we pass every day but we never went into.
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5:24 - 5:29An artist, I think, can really show us people
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5:29 - 5:32that we might overlook in our lives.
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5:32 - 5:35Back to Back is an Australian company of people
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5:35 - 5:40with intellectual disabilities. I saw their amazing show
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5:40 - 5:43in New York at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal
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5:43 - 5:44at rush hour.
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5:44 - 5:47We, the audience, were given headsets and seated
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5:47 - 5:50on one side of the terminal.
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5:50 - 5:52The actors were right there in front of us,
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5:52 - 5:54right there among the commuters,
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5:54 - 5:56and we could hear them,
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5:56 - 5:59but we might not have otherwise seen them.
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5:59 - 6:03So Back to Back takes site-specific theater and uses it
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6:03 - 6:07to gently remind us about who and what we choose
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6:07 - 6:09to edit out of our daily lives.
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6:09 - 6:13So, the dialogue with the local and the global,
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6:13 - 6:16the audience as participant and player and protagonist,
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6:16 - 6:20the innovative use of site, all of these things
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6:20 - 6:22come to play in the amazing work
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6:22 - 6:27of the fantastic French company Royal de Luxe.
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6:27 - 6:30Royal de Luxe's giant puppets come into a city
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6:30 - 6:33and they live there for a few days.
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6:33 - 6:37For "The Sultan's Elephant," Royal de Luxe
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6:37 - 6:40came to central London and brought it to a standstill
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6:40 - 6:44with their story of a giant little girl and her friend,
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6:44 - 6:47a time-traveling elephant.
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6:47 - 6:51For a few days, they transformed a massive city
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6:51 - 6:56into a community where endless possibility reigned.
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6:56 - 7:00The Guardian wrote, "If art is about transformation,
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7:00 - 7:04then there can be no more transformative experience.
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7:04 - 7:08What 'The Sultan's Elephant' represents is no less
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7:08 - 7:10than an artistic occupation of the city
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7:10 - 7:15and a reclamation of the streets for the people."
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7:15 - 7:19We can talk about the economic impacts of these festivals
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7:19 - 7:23on their cities, but I'm much [more] interested in many more things,
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7:23 - 7:27like how a festival helps a city to express itself,
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7:27 - 7:30how it lets it come into its own.
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7:30 - 7:32Festivals promote diversity,
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7:32 - 7:34they bring neighbors into dialogue,
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7:34 - 7:37they increase creativity,
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7:37 - 7:40they offer opportunities for civic pride,
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7:40 - 7:43they improve our general psychological well-being.
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7:43 - 7:48In short, they make cities better places to live.
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7:48 - 7:49Case in point:
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7:49 - 7:52When "The Sultan's Elephant" came to London
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7:52 - 7:56just nine months after 7/7, a Londoner wrote,
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7:56 - 8:00"For the first time since the London bombings,
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8:00 - 8:04my daughter called up with that sparkle back in her voice.
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8:04 - 8:05She had gathered with others
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8:05 - 8:09to watch 'The Sultan's Elephant,' and, you know,
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8:09 - 8:11it just made all the difference."
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8:11 - 8:13Lyn Gardner in The Guardian has written
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8:13 - 8:18that a great festival can show us a map of the world,
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8:18 - 8:22a map of the city and a map of ourselves,
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8:22 - 8:25but there is no one fixed festival model.
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8:25 - 8:28I think what's so brilliant about the festivals,
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8:28 - 8:33the new festivals, is that they are really fully capturing
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8:33 - 8:36the complexity and the excitement
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8:36 - 8:38of the way we all live today.
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8:38 - 8:46Thank you very much. (Applause)
- Title:
- The arts festival revolution
- Speaker:
- David Binder
- Description:
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David Binder is a major Broadway producer, but last summer he found himself in a small Australian neighborhood, watching locals dance and perform on their lawns -- and loving it. He shows us the new face of arts festivals, which break the boundary between audience and performer and help cities express themselves.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:06
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The arts festival revolution | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The arts festival revolution |