ImprovFest 2021

IF 2021 is a free, 24-hour online festival of improvised arts, featuring over 150 international performers of all disciplines—music, dance, theatre, poetry, visual arts, and more. Presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) in partnership with festivals and community organizations around the world.

You can follow the transmission: www.17radio.org or http://improvfest.ca

This unique festival will be a chance for you to reconnect with the arts from your home. It’s a celebration of this vast, diverse group of innovative artists doing what they do best: sharing inspiring performances that will make you smile, reflect, and re-connect with your surroundings & community.

While we can now see the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, we still recognize that this summer brings significant challenges: most festivals have been postponed or digitized for yet another summer, artists are clamouring for ways to connect with audiences, and community members are longing for experiences with the arts. Through IF 2021, we want to inspire attendees to feel more connected with one another and make the summer a bit brighter as we look towards singing, dancing, and celebrating in public spaces again soon.

We’re All About Respectful Participation!

IF 2021’s 24-hour online Festival is meant as a site of digital gathering in which everyone attending is welcome to listen deeply, imagine freely, and invite sparks of inspiration and joy. It is intended to reconnect audience members with themselves, their immediate community, and an international web of open-minded art lovers. Creating such a space is only possible when we ensure respectful participation and a safe, inclusive digital environment.

IF 2021 attendees are welcome to share thoughts, ideas, and feelings through our live chat during the Festival, as well as through their social media accounts before, during, and after the event. We invite these channels of communication as a means to lift one another up, and will not tolerate their use to bully, harass, or otherwise make Festival artists or other Festival attendees feel unwelcome. The Festival’s social media accounts are moderated regularly, and the live chat for IF 2021 will be monitored closely for the duration of the Festival.