The Festival of Pacific Arts: Celebrating over 40 years of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The Festival of Pacific Arts, initially known as the South Pacific Arts Festival, has grown from the 1st edition with 1000 participants from 20 countries to the Festival of Pacific Arts with close to 3000 delegates from 27 countries. The concept for a regional festival originated from the Fiji Arts Council in 1965. They envisioned a festival put on by and for Pacific peoples; a festival built upon the tradition of both sharing and passing cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. Working to facilitate this vision, the Fiji Arts Council and the South Pacific Commission (now Pacific Community) combined their resources to host the 1st South Pacific Festival of Arts, in 1972. Since that time, twelve Festivals have taken place. Show more