Festivals are where ISTA began 40 years ago and while we’ve branched out into other types of events over the years, festivals remain our raison d’etre. I’m hugely excited and proud to announce and share with you the 2019-2020 festival season.

If you’re a regular at festivals – do take the time to browse through the calendar and webpages and make your choice before Friday 8th March when booking opens.

You can see all the festivals here.

If you are a member school but haven’t been to a festival before, or in recent years, I urge you to sign up on Friday or asap afterwards to give your students (and yourself!) this unique, life changing experience. And if you fall into this category do take the time to watch our festival film which captures beautifully the festival experience.

A few highlights to mention…

– Our two sites of learning festivals will take place again in Terezin and at the Eden Project in Cornwall – a fantastic opportunity for your students to learn about invaluable issues such as the holocaust and sustainability – through theatre.

– I couldn’t be happier that homestay is still an option for many festivals – and we’ve achieved a good balance this year of both homestay and hotel accommodation festivals.

– It amazes me that after 40 years we are still discovering new cities so we’ll head to places like Erlangen, Madrid and Ulm next year for the first time. And we are in the final stages of confirming our first ever festival in Canada – watch this space!

– Another first is that in line with our strategic planning we are offering more opportunities for primary school children with PS festivals in Brussels, Frankfurt AND Dubai – not to mention our old favourites returning in the guise of our local PS festivals in Singapore. These will be confirmed shortly.

We liken the opening of festival bookings to the first day of the Harrod’s sales! Take the time this week to make your choices and get your fingers on the pulse – Jo will be waiting at the ‘other end’ – to ensure you go where you want, when you want next year.

Sally Robertson, Executive Director, ISTA