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The Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS), the first large festival in Central and Eastern Europe, one of the major festivals in the world, and the biggest performing arts event in Romania, will present, in 20-29 August, over 600 events from 37 countries, from all the continents, in what will be its most complex edition so far.
Organized under the High Patronage of the President of Romania and with the support of the Sibiu City Hall and the Sibiu County Council, FITS will include great artists of the world stage, offering the audience the possibility to enjoy some of the most appreciated international performances, which have gained world fame and won prestigious awards. The 2021 edition of FITS, suggestively themes “Building Hope Together”, will have three dimensions: in-presence, hybrid, and online.
The Sibiu International Theatre Festival aims to rebuild hope together with its audience, which will have access to a real performing arts feast, i.e. theatre, dance, circus, film, musical, opera, book, conferences, exhibition, performances, music, and street productions. Israel Galván Company, Charlotte Rampling, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, María Pagés Compañía are just some of the great international artists and companies to join FITS 2021.
The representations in the Sibiu International Theatre Festival will be performed in performance halls, unconventional spaces, churches, city squares, and in spectators’ home, via the FITS website, www.sibfest.ro, www.scena-digitala.ro, its Facebook page, and YouTube channel.
‘The Festival began 28 years ago with three countries and eight performances and is now one of the few festivals in the world - perhaps the only one - that has gone on every year. Last year, we were at a crossroad, as we all went through rough times, having been placed in lockdown, unable to communicate, isolated. All this time, we thought about our spectators in Sibiu, in Romania, and in the world. That is why we made the huge effort of organizing the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, as we felt empowered to go on. And now, thanks to that great challenge which my team and I managed to overcome, we developed the Digital Stage, thus virtually bringing over 7 million spectators from 104 countries around us. This year, our great test was finding a way to see you all physically so we can build hope together. Therefore, in this wonderful community of Sibiu, we have built the most complex festival and its most complex edition. A city that has never been conquered and which, on 1 June 1788, on International Children’s Day, opened the first theatre on the territory of Romania. It is a wonderful joy to be able to keep the child within us alive, for this empowers us to play, tell, dream, and hold on to hope’, Constantin Chiriac, President of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, said on Thursday, at the press conference dedicated to the Festival.
Building Hope Together
This year’s edition is designed to make the hundreds of performances in its programme accessible to as many audiences as possible, which is why the event will have a threefold dimension.
The in-presence dimension includes the performances presented inside theatre halls, outdoors, and in other venues where physical representations are scheduled. Another layer is the hybrid dimension, in which indoor shows performed in the presence of the audience will be live streamed as well, thanks to five streaming teams, into cinema theatres and other venues in Sibiu and around Romania, in all the places whose local administrators wish to enter a partnership with FITS. These two aspects are joined by a third, online dimension, which will make available to theatre fans productions especially adapted for the digital environment. Tickets will be up for sale starting 22 July, on www.sibfest.ro and on the Entertix platform, starting from RON 20 up to RON 150, for in-presence performances.
Many events in the Sibiu International Theatre Festival programme will be offered to the audience free of charge. FITS maintains the tradition of great outdoor representations available free of charge; moreover, it will virtually stream a series of free performances.
The FITS 2021 programme will be available on www.sibfest.ro.
