An arts festival is a festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

 that focuses on the visual arts

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

 in all its forms, but which may also focus on or include other arts.

Arts festivals in the visual arts are exhibitions and are not to be confused with the commercial art fair

Art fair

An art fair is a commercial exhibition that shows the work of artists or art dealers. Each entrant has to pay a fee.Art fairs are not to be confused with art exhibitions. Exhibitions are organised by curators....

. Artists participate in the most important of such festival exhibitions by invitation, and these exhibitions (e.g. the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

) are organised by internationally recognized curators chosen by a committee of peers. These international exhibitions must be distinguished from art fairs, market-oriented gatherings of art dealers and their wares, which have recently emerged as among the most important art-world venues for promoting artists and sales of contemporary art in the present-day super-heated art market.

History

Probably the two oldest festivals are in England. The Three Choirs Festival

Three Choirs Festival

The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...

 in the West of England was established as a "yearly musical assembly" by 1719. The other is the Norfolk and Norwich Festival

Norfolk and Norwich Festival

Norfolk & Norwich Festival is an arts organisation based in Norwich, England which is primarily responsible for the eponymous international arts festival held in annually every May, with events also held throughout the wider county of Norfolk....

 which first took place in 1772. The largest arts festival in England today is the Brighton Festival

Brighton Festival

The Brighton Festival is an annual arts festival which takes place in the city of Brighton and Hove in England each May. It was founded in 1966, and is the largest multi-art form festival in England...

.

Leading arts festivals include the Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

 in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, which is the largest arts festival, Adelaide Festival of Arts

Adelaide Festival of Arts

The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...

 in 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 Biennale of Sydney

Biennale of Sydney

The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is the largest and best-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country...

, Festival d'Avignon

Festival d'Avignon

The Festival d'Avignon, or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon. Founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, it is the oldest extant festival in France and one of the world's greatest...

 in Avignon

Avignon

Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...

, France, and Tongyeong International Music Festival

TIMF

TIMF is an abbreviated title of Tongyeong International Music Festival . It covers the title of the event concerned and at the same time, a wide umbrella of diversified business branches within categories of the event concerned....

 in Tongyeong

Tongyeong

Tongyeong is a coastal city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. In 2010, it had an area of 238.81 ㎢ and a population of 139,869 people. It is divided into 1 eup , 6 myeon and 11 dong . Chungmu city and Tongyeong county were reunited in 1995, creating Tongyeong City as we know it today...

, Korea. One-off arts festivals have included the Liverpool08 European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

in 2008.