Arts Fest Shifts Course

THE UPCOMING Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) will be a litmus test of sorts. It will be the first festival to be headed by festival director Gaurav Kripalani, taking over from former director Ong Keng Sen. And its success with audiences and artists will determine whether Mr Kripalani is right to steer the festival away from Mr Ong's more avant garde vision and back to an arguably more broad-based course.

Both appointments have not been without some controversy. Mr Ong's progressive and experimental programming drew much admiration and loyalty among hardcore arts lovers, but alienated novice audiences who struggled with many cutting-edge shows. Mr Kripalani's more conservative tastes have already ensured strong ticket sales for the more recognisable titles and stars (1984 and Jacob Collier, among others), but arts lovers who want to be challenged find his programming "too safe".

For his part, Mr Kripalani is sure that the festival's 41st edition already has a broad spread of works to please different pockets of audiences. He says: "We have such a different audience now compared to what it was 30 years ago. The audience base was small and it was the same people going for everything. Now it's more segmented and, within each art form, there are further sub-segments. A national festival such as SIFA should try to cater to all audiences, and its diverse programming must appeal to the different segments."