Jonathan Holloway's Final Melbourne International Arts Festival Brings A Touch Of Magic To The City

The 35th Melbourne International Arts Festival came to a close on Sunday after 19 spectacular days of dance, visual arts, music and theatre across various venues around the city.

Featuring six world premieres, 12 Australian premieres, three Australian exclusives and countless unforgettable experiences, Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway's fourth and final Melbourne International Arts Festival surpassed $3 million at the box office for the third consecutive year, achieving $3.2 million. Since taking the helm in 2016, Holloway's festivals have produced 40 world premieres, 66 Australian premieres, 673 performances, with close to a million attendances and almost $13 million in total box office income.

In keeping with Holloway's tradition of presenting new work, the 2019 Festival commissioned five new large-scale works including the innovative local production Anthem, international collaboration The Nico Project, the world premiere of Chunky Move's Token Armies, Yang Liping Dance Company's Rite of Spring and Kronos Quartet's live documentary A Thousand Thoughts, in addition to the festival opener Tanderrum and the popular annual Melbourne Art Trams project.

Over the four years, Holloway has commissioned 34 of the most ground-breaking works to be shown in Melbourne including Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2017), Anthem (2019), The Season (2017), Lady Eats Apple (2016), One Infinity (2018), War and Peace (2016), Layla and Majnun (2018), Rite of Spring (2019) and 1000 Doors (2018), alongside the annual Tanderrum, Melbourne Art Trams and free music program Our Place, Our Home.

"I am deeply proud of everything we have all achieved over the past three weeks, and indeed across the past four Melbourne Festivals," said Jonathan Holloway. "The Kulin Nations have opened and been at the eart of every Festival, a unique and central part of one of the most diverse and arts literate cities in the world.

"Melbourne knows how to nourish, welcome and celebrate creativity; experiencing this year's Festival has involved numerous moments of ecstasy and intimacy, magic and truth. I have found myself crying with sadness, laughter or recognition more times than I should admit, and been transported around the world over and over again, always returning to marvellous Melbourne. Great artists, colleagues, collaborators and audiences have risen to every challenge and explored every laneway of who we are as 21st century global citizens.

"It has been one of the great honours of my life to spend almost a decade in Australia, directing the Perth and Melbourne Festivals, two of the world's greatest arts festivals, in such different but superb cities. Personally, the welcome that my family and I have received has made it all the more enriching.

"Professionally, to be central in the commissioning of over 50 new works in that time, and bringing great arts experiences to almost four million audience members, just helps to show the importance of the arts to Australia, and the importance of Australia to the arts world."

2019 marks the 35th and final Melbourne International Arts Festival, paving the way for a new major cultural event to open in August 2020.

The yet to be named new festival, directed by Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek, will be a call to arms and a celebration of the night; a surge of civic ceremony and nocturnal culture alongside large-scale artworks, site specific performances and major International Artists.