Festival Stories

The Festival is right around the corner! Are you ready to jump into hundreds of fun events? Day one is packed with events to engage all of the senses. We want to prepare you for the outdoor and indoor excitement, so keep reading for our suggestions on getting a full festival experience.

Saturday, June 8, 2019
Bike Tours: EAST COAST GREENWAY SOUTH @ 9:00am >
Walking Tours: MAKE HAVEN @ 11:00am >
Bike Tours: BIKE SHARE NEW HAVEN: RENT, RIDE, RETURN @ 2:00pm >
Walking Tours: WESTVILLE STUDIOS, GALLERIES, AND PUBLIC ART @ 3:00pm >
If you’re taking part in our tours, beat the heat: carry water bottles...

You’re eyeing that super intriguing Ideas talk, imagining the great discussion to come. There aren’t many opportunities like this to talk with city planners, dancers, hip hop historians, youth activists, cooks, tai chi champions and a variety of other impressive individuals for free. How can you glean the most from these valuable conversations? Here’s a list of questions and tactics to challenge yourself with while you participate in any and all of the Ideas talks this June.

Before attending:
Consider taking notes to help you focus on and remember the discussion.
Ask yourself:

• What do I think I...

The headline concerts on the New Haven Green—the big shows on Saturday and Sunday evenings—are among the most visible and exciting parts of each year's Festival. They are completely FREE and open to everyone to enjoy, so what are you waiting for? There are a number of ways that you can have fun at the concerts! Here are a few tips and tricks from our veteran Festival attendees.

JUST SHOW UP!
First and foremost, just show up! The headline concerts (like all Festival activities on the Green) occur on the "lower" part of the Green between Temple and Church Streets, are 100% free to everyone, and...

Are you ready to learn just how beautiful and how big garba is today? As you read these last three facts as shared by the Lincoln Center, get excited to dance on the Green with Garba360!

Traditional attire for men and women involves flowing "skirts."
The attire worn at garba is vibrant, colorful, and flowy. It allows for freedom of movement, especially in arms and legs, and also spins with the dancers as they clap and twirl. Traditionally, women wear chaniya choli—a traditional Gujarati three-piece outfit comprising choli (a blouse), a chaniya (long flared skirt), and an embellished dupatta (...

The guide to garba continues with three more informative tidbits, thanks to the Lincoln Center. Keep reading to learn more about the dance that Garba360 will teach at this year’s festival.

A garba event is comprised of several Gujarat folk dances forms and is often referred to as "raas-garba."
A garba event consists of several segments and Gujarati folk dance forms, including be taali garba (2-clap garba), tran taali garba (3-clap garba), raas, hinch, and more. The two primary forms are garba (both be taali and tran taali) as well as raas. Garba typically consists of snaps and claps to keep the...

Hear Geoff Sobelle expound on the inspirations leading to HOME in this recent podcast by Berkeley Rep. Sobelle discusses the imaginative and literal construction of the project and the magic that makes it all possible. Spoiler alert: he also breaks down the show’s approach to audience participation.

“... we had to pry up all this linoleum tile, and under the linoleum tile—which is not easy to get up—was more linoleum tile. And under that linoleum tile was yet more linoleum tile, and more and more and more, until we went down like, literally six inches deep of linoleum tile and realized that...

"Human in Plural / Plural in Human" is a way in which we identify ourselves. Through this perspective, sizes, colors, religions, social classes, and race are only names, not identities in themselves.

The mirror shows us the shape of our bodies: the outside, the cover, container. When do we start to question what is inside of us? Who is that new person inside of us we should communicate with and learn about?

When we find out, when can we open up to others and tell them how our inside self is helping us to be human?

— Toto Kisaku

Experience "Human in Plural" ...

Alasdair Neale will officially take over as music director and conductor of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the fourth oldest in the country, July 1, shortly after he is introduced to the community at a free concert on the New Haven Green on June 22. Having led symphonies in California and Sun Valley, Idaho, Neale replaces William Boughton, who ended his 12-year tenure with the orchestra in May.

I sat down with Neale, the 56-year-old, British-born maestro, at a downtown cafe in New Haven — familiar turf for Neale, who spent six years at the Yale School of Music, graduating in 1985 with a...

The sounds of Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq

"It's not for everybody," Tagaq says, but her unique music, a blend of an ancient art form with elements of punk rock, heavy metal and electronica, has been called "transfixing" by Rolling Stone

Chances are you won't be hearing Tanya Tagaq's music at your next dinner party or wafting over the speakers at the mall. She is technically a pop star, but not in the same vein as, say, her fellow Canadians Drake or Arcade Fire, both of whom Tagaq recently beat out to win the country's most prestigious music prize. Hailing from Nunavut, a territory above the...

The Arts & Ideas’ Fellowship Program gives students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the arts by way of activities and seminars. Over a period of six months, they share their personal stories with each other, explore social justice issues through the arts, respond to live performances and articles, become familiar with the format of a non-profit organization, and even create and produce their own Town Hall program for the festival.

We asked this year’s fellows to introduce themselves to our online community and also share their personal reactions to The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the...

The Avangrid Foundation, the primary charitable arm of AVANGRID, is proud to be among the family of founding and current supporters of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, now spanning more than two decades. What started with support from then-independent subsidiary United Illuminating (UI) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG) has been sustained by the Avangrid Foundation since 2016, in a new capacity.

Arts & Ideas is part of the fabric of New Haven and Connecticut. Just like us.

Arts & Ideas is inextricably linked with making greater New Haven the international arts hub that it is. The...