The Adelaide International Guitar Festival (AIGF) is Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

’s largest guitar festival, held biennially in the South Australian Capital of Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

. The AIGF is the sister event to the New York Guitar Festival

New York Guitar Festival

The New York Guitar Festival is a music festival founded by radio host and author John Schaefer and musician, producer and curator David Spelman, who serves at the festival's Artistic Director...

. 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

Adelaide Festival Centre

The Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first multi-purpose arts centre, was built in 1973 and opened three months before the Sydney Opera House. The Festival Centre is located approximately 50 metres north of the corner of North Terrace and King William Street, lying near the banks of the River...

 located in the heart of Adelaide and presents some of the most distinctive and influential guitarists from around Australia and the world.

On 30 March 2009, The Adelaide Festival Centres CEO, Douglas Gautier, along with recently appointed AIGF Artistic Director Slava Grigoryan

Slava Grigoryan

Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist of Armenian heritage.He was born in Kazakhstan to Eduard and Irina Grigoryan, both professional violinists. His family emigrated to Australia in 1981 and he was raised in Melbourne. Grigoryan began to study guitar with his...

 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."

The 2010 Festival

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.

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.”

The 2010 Adelaide International Guitar Festival will run over four days from 25 – 28 November. The official program will be released online at 12:30pm (EST), Wednesday, 28 April - http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/guitarfestival/

As part of the 2010 program the Festival is hosting the International Classical Guitar Competition. This will be an opportunity for emerging players to be heard and given exposure on an international platform with prizes exceeding $25,000, putting it on par with the world’s most prestigious competitions.

You can fan the AIGF on Facebook to access all the latest news, goss and comps - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-International-Guitar-Festival/116713168344613?ref=ts

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.”
David Spelman

David Spelman

David Spelman is a New York-based music producer and curator working in recordings, films and live events- Early life :...

 founder of the New York Guitar Festival

New York Guitar Festival

The New York Guitar Festival is a music festival founded by radio host and author John Schaefer and musician, producer and curator David Spelman, who serves at the festival's Artistic Director...

, served as the founding artistic director for the Festival and continues serve as an international program advisor. The ten-day festival was modeled on the New York Guitar Festival

New York Guitar Festival

The New York Guitar Festival is a music festival founded by radio host and author John Schaefer and musician, producer and curator David Spelman, who serves at the festival's Artistic Director...

, 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.”.

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

The Atlantics

This article refers to the Australian Surf rock band. See paragraph at the end of this page for information on other bands called The Atlantics....

, Richard Clapton

Richard Clapton

Richard Clapton is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sydney, New South Wales. His solo top 20 hits on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" and "I Am an Island"...

, Beau Young, David Lindley

David Lindley (musician)

David Perry Lindley is an American musician who is notable for his work with Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and other rock musicians. He has worked extensively in other genres as well, performing with artists as varied as Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton...

, Kaki King

Kaki King

Kaki King is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and her diverse range in different genres.In February 2006, Rolling Stone released a list of "The New Guitar...

, Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...

, Bob Brozman

Bob Brozman

Bob Brozman is an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist.He has performed in a number of styles such as Gypsy jazz, calypso, Blues, ragtime, Hawaiian and Caribbean music. Brozman has also collaborated with musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds such as India, Africa, Japan, Papua New Guinea...

, Cindy Cashdollar

Cindy Cashdollar

Cindy Cashdollar is a steel guitar and Dobro artist. She grew up in Woodstock, New York where she perfected her skills by playing with bluegrass musician John Herald, blues musician Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band.Cashdollar received five Grammy awards while playing...

, Lucky Oceans

Lucky Oceans

Lucky Oceans is a pedal steel guitarist and a former member of Country/Western Swing band Asleep at the Wheel. He is now a broadcaster in Perth, Western Australia with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

, John Hammond

John P. Hammond

John Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...

 Jnr and Fiona Boyes

Fiona Boyes

Fiona Boyes is an Australian blues musician. She has been recording for more than 17 years and has toured in Australia, the United States, and Europe. Boyes' debut US release Lucky 13 was officially nominated by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN for the 2007 Blues Music Awards, 'Contemporary...

.

2008

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

2008 also featured a variety of local and international artists including:
The Romeros Guitar Quartet, Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd is an Australian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in 1978 and grew up in Torquay, Victoria. He attended St. Joseph's College, Geelong....

, Adrian Belew

Adrian Belew

Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...

, Hoodoo Gurus

Hoodoo Gurus

Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band, formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner and later joined by Richard Grossman , Mark Kingsmill , and Brad Shepherd...

, The Derek Trucks Band, Lior

Lior

Lior is a male, independent Australian singer-songwriter based in Melbourne.-Career:In early 2005, Lior independently self-released his debut album Autumn Flow, certified gold by ARIA...

, Troy Cassar-Daley

Troy Cassar-Daley

Troy Cassar-Daley is a multi-award-winning country musician from New South Wales, Australia.He released his first EP, "Dream Out Loud", in 1994 and was nominated for his first Golden Guitar for Best Male Vocalist the same year...

, The Party Boys

The Party Boys

The Party Boys was an Australian rock band with floating membership that existed from 1982 until 1992. Initially established by Mondo Rock bass player Paul Christie as a part-time venture for professional musicians with downtime from other projects, the group has boasted members from acts such as...

, Slava Grigoryan

Slava Grigoryan

Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist of Armenian heritage.He was born in Kazakhstan to Eduard and Irina Grigoryan, both professional violinists. His family emigrated to Australia in 1981 and he was raised in Melbourne. Grigoryan began to study guitar with his...

, Ash Grunwald

Ash Grunwald

Ash Grunwald is an Australian radio announcer and blues musician.-Early career:...

, Grinspoon

Grinspoon

Grinspoon are an Australian rock band from Lismore, New South Wales formed in 1995 and fronted by Phil Jamieson on vocals and guitar with Pat Davern on guitar, Joe Hansen on bass guitar and Kristian Hopes on drums. Also in 1995, they won the Triple J-sponsored Unearthed competition for Lismore,...

, Guy Pratt

Guy Pratt

Guy Pratt is a session bassist and also a songwriter, actor and comedian. He is the son of actor Mike Pratt. In Kensington and Chelsea, London, in 1996, Pratt married Gala Wright, the daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright...

and Peter Denahy.

http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/guitarfestival/

References