Adelaide International Guitar Festival

The Adelaide International Guitar Festival (AIGF) is Australia’s largest guitar festival, held biennially in the South Australian Capital of Adelaide. The AIGF is the sister event to the New York Guitar Festival.^[1] The AIGF features local, national and international artists across a variety of genres including rock, jazz, classical, experimental, blues and roots music.

The festival is held at the Adelaide Festival Centre located in the heart of Adelaide and presents some of the most distinctive and influential guitarists from around Australia and the world.

Following negotiations with the New York Guitar Festival's founder David Spelman, South Australian Premier Mike Rann announced in 2007 that Adelaide would stage the first Adelaide International Guitar Festival later in the year.^[2]

On 30 March 2009, The Adelaide Festival Centres CEO, Douglas Gautier, along with recently appointed AIGF Artistic Director Slava Grigoryan announced the festival was to become a biannual event to ensure there was "more planning and lead time to secure artists and projects which excite audiences, partners and sponsors."^[3]

Past Events

The AIGF began in 2007 as part of the plan to make the Adelaide Festival Centre “the nation’s most innovative arts hub.” ^[1] David Spelman founder of the New York Guitar Festival, served as the founding artistic director for the Festival and continues serve as an international program advisor.^[4] The ten-day festival was modeled on the New York Guitar Festival, and drew 30 thousand people in the first year. The Adelaide Advertiser wrote that "never before have we had a festival like this... the Guitar Festival was a roaring success and an unqualified winner." Rolling Stone called it "a genuinely international event... curated by David Spelman, the man behind the world-famous New York Guitar Festival"

Over 100 musicians from around the world performed in over 40 events spanning many genres, with attendance in excess of 30,000 each year; the Festival promises to become an “important and permanent fixture in Australia’s music events calendar.”.^[1]

2007

The 2007 Festival was held from 23 November to 2 December.

2007 featured a number of local and international artists including: Ralph Towner, Jorma Kaukonen, The Assad Duo, Pepe Romero, The Atlantics, Richard Clapton, Beau Young, David Lindley, Kaki King, Vernon Reid, Bob Brozman, Cindy Cashdollar, Lucky Oceans, John Hammond Jnr and Fiona Boyes.

2008

The 2008 Festival was held from 29 November to 7 December.

Artists who performed at the 2008 festival included: The Romeros Guitar Quartet, Xavier Rudd, Adrian Belew, Hoodoo Gurus, The Derek Trucks Band, Lior, Troy Cassar-Daley, The Party Boys, Slava Grigoryan, Ash Grunwald, Grinspoon, Guy Pratt and Peter Denahy.

2010

In March 2009 it was announced that Slava Grigoryan had been appointed artistic director for the 2010 Festival. Grigoryan is known to Australian audiences as an extraordinary classical guitarist, however his musical tastes and abilities stretch far beyond his genre.^[5]

Grigoryan commented on his appointment, saying “it was a great honour for me to be asked to direct a Festival, with the guitar at its heart.”^[3]

The 2010 Adelaide International Guitar Festival ran from 25 – 28 November and featured a variety of local and international artists including: Manuel Barrueco, Richard Bona, Shawn Mullins, Dhafer Youssef, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Jeff Lang, Yamandu Costa, Pepe de Lucia, Oscar Guzman and more.

As part of the 2010 program the Festival hosted the inaugral Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition. The winner was Jin-Hee Kim from South Korea, second-prize was awarded to Samuel Klemke from Germany and third place went to Tal Hurwitz from Israel.

2012

The 2012 Adelaide International Guitar Festival ran from 9 - 12 August and was Slava Grigoryan's second festival as Artistic Director.

The 2012 festival included performances by: John Scofield Trio, Punch Brothers, Ana Vidovic, Australian String Quartet, Edin Karamazov, Tommy Emmanuel, Caminos Flamencos, Paulo Bellinati & Weber Lopez and more.

The Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition returned, and this year was won by former Adelaide University Elder Conservatorium of Music student Andrey Lebedev. Australia's Stephanie Jones came in second while third place went to Ekachai Jearakul from Thailand.

2014

The 2014 Adelaide International Guitar Festival ran from 17 - 20 July, with Slava Grigoryan returning as Artistic Director.

The 2014 festival featured a range of local and international artists, including: Pepe Romero, Yamandu Costa, Debashish Bhattacharya, Guthrie Govan, Jose Antonio Rodriguez Trio, Judicael Perroy, Maximo Pujol Trio, Stochelo Rosenberg Trio, Australian String Quartet and more, including the premiere of the Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra.

The third Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition was won by Romania's Bogdan Milailescu, second place went to Brendan Evans with Callum Henshaw coming in third.

2016

The Adelaide International Guitar Festival will return in 2016.

References