The Story of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival. BT, a Long-Standing Partner.
The Sibiu International Theatre Festival starts on June 9, and the familiar buzz of a great experience is already in the air—and Banca Transilvania is part of it again this year. In terms of scale, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival is the third-largest performing arts festival in Europe, after the Edinburgh International Festival (United Kingdom) and the Avignon Festival (France).
Over the 10 days of the festival, more than 3,000 guests from around 70 countries are expected. This year’s 24th edition features over 500 events at 70 locations across the city. An audience of 680,000 is expected, and 600 volunteers—from Romania and abroad—are helping bring the festival to life.
This year celebrates love through theatre, dance, music and circus, with performances in venues, on the city’s streets and in places of worship—all united by a love of the performing arts.
Here’s how its story began: in 1993, Constantin Chiriac, an actor at the “Radu Stanca” Theatre in Sibiu, together with others, decided to organise a theatre festival in the city. At the first editions, some foreign spectators even carried garlic in their pockets to ward off vampires J.
Each year the festival has grown, with 2005 a landmark year, featuring 68 countries and 2,000 spectators. The festival contributed to Sibiu’s designation as European Capital of Culture in 2007. That year, more than 2,500 guests from 70 countries took part. The festival brings together many art forms to suit all tastes: theatre, dance, circus, film, books, talks, exhibitions, music and workshops. The meeting of theatre schools and cultural management academies is an associated structure of FITS, the Festival of Theatre Universities and Cultural Management.
Part of FITS’s charm is that each year the festival has a different theme, around which the artistic programming is built:
\r\n
\r\n
1995 - Tolerance
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
1996 - Violence
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
1997 - Cultural Identity
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
1998 - Connections
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
1999 - Creativity
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2000 - Alternatives
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2001 - Challenges
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2002 - Bridges
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2003 - Tomorrow
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2004 - Heritage
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2005 - Signs
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2006 - Together?!
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2007 - Next
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2008 - Energies
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2009 - Innovations
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2010 - Questions
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2011 - Communities
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2012 - Crises. Culture makes the difference
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2013 - Dialogue
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2014 - Uniqueness in diversity
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2015 - Growing smart/ Smart growing
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2016 - Building trust
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
2017 – Love
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
For 10 days, while the International Theatre Festival runs, the world’s cultural capital is in Romania, in Sibiu.
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
\r\n
\\r\\n
\r\n
