Melbourne Festival is an internationally acclaimed annual arts festival that connects the highest calibre of local, national and international artists in order to share an extraordinary experience with audiences that stimulates and celebrates our city’s creativity, deepens our understanding of the human spirit, and strengthens and enriches our community.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2015, the festival continues to attract visitors from regional, interstate and international areas to participate in an event schedule that activates city cultural institutions and public spaces with its breadth of both paid and free programming.
The 2015 Melbourne Festival ran from 8 to 25 October, with key achievements including 80 events with over 1000 artists participating from 23 countries; eight world premieres; 17 Australian premieres; 15 Melbourne Festival exclusives, 40 free events; with work presented across 30 venues.
The result was an overall attendance of 335,000+ people (plus an estimated 1.8 million who may have boarded a Melbourne Art Tram), with the Festival achieving their highest box office result in over a decade totalling $3.3 million, and a 90 per cent overall satisfaction rate from their audience.