İzmir to turn into city of art during annual festival

İZMİR - Anatolia News Agency

The Dutch National Ballet will be among the guests of the 26th International İzmir Festival, which will host performances from many renowned groups from Turkey and the world between June 4 and Sept. 28. DHA photo

The program for the 26th International İzmir Festival has been announced. The festival will bring the arts to İzmir audiences starting on June 4 this year.

The festival is supported by the İzmir Culture, Art and Education Foundation (İKSEV), the Prime Ministry’s Presentation Fund, the Tourism Ministry, İzmir Municipality, the İzmir Development Agency and Konak Municipality. İKSEV board manager Filiz Eczacıbaşı Sarper, İzmir Mayor Haluk Tunçsu, İzmir Development Agency Secretary Ergüder Can, İzmir Province Culture and Tourism Manager Abdülaziz Ediz, Italian consul-general to İzmir Igor di Bernardini, Polish consul-general to Istanbul Miroslaw Stawski, and İzmir Goethe Institute representative Özlem Günerli gave a press conference to announce the festival program May 10.

“We are very excited and happy to see such a festival here, and to host so many famous groups,” said Sarper.

The festival will continue until Sept. 28, and will host performances from many famous groups. This year’s festival will begin with an art event, which has also been staged in London and other European countries, titled “Re-Rite Voice and Video Installation.”

The London Philharmonic Orchestra and their conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will present a digital project described as “an extraordinary presentation of an ordinary idea,” at İzmir’s 128-year-old cigarette factory. The show “Reji İzmir,” will be staged everyday between June 5 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. There will be 29 different cameras and microphones installed in the venue, which will enable the audience feel like part of orchestra as it performs Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”

German chamber orchestra Faure Quartett, Erkan Oğur, Derya Türkan and French musician Vincent Segal will also perform at the festival, as will groups as diverse as Pink Martini, China’s Shenzen Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.