“Twenty-first-century arts festivals ask the audience to be a player, rather than a passive spectator,” says David Binder, a Tony award-winning theater producer. In his TED Talk earlier this year, he explains the new face of arts festivals, which break the boundary between audience and performer and help communities express themselves, something we’ve been doing for 13 years, with the 21st century festival we call How Weird. The How Weird Street Faire is an experiment in creating peace, in bringing strangers together and enabling them to form a common bond of understanding and appreciation.
“Festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, they increase creativity, they offer opportunities for civic pride, they improve our general psychological well-being.” As Binder explains, “Artists are explorers. Who better to show us a city anew?”