The Adelaide Guitar Festival has announced its 2018 program today. Running from August 9 – 12, it features a line-up that features 20 international artists, five world premieres, two Australian premieres and four Adelaide premieres as well as workshops, artist talks, a guitar expo, masterclasses and more. Artistic Director Slava Grigoryan, a renowned classical guitarist himself, spoke to Limelight about the program.

Artistic Director Slava Grigoryan. Photograph © Sam Smith

The Festival has grown a lot since you took over in 2010. Have you found the right formula for such an event?

Absolutely. Nothing is taboo, genre-wise. It definitely makes it an incredibly interesting canvas to work with, because the guitar is such an instrument that has a huge role to play in every genre of music, and we do try and promote and celebrate all of it. Obviously there’s lots of periods in classical music but we try to weave in Americana and jazz and rock and pop music, and everything in between.

Do you get a lot of people pitching to you these days?

We do. The program is curated by the programming team and myself. I guess it’s a combination of field work...