Arts festival

An arts festival is a festival that features the arts in a wide sense of the word, not just visual arts. Arts festivals typically feature a mixed programme that might include music, literature, comedy, children's entertainment, science, street theatre etc. and are presented most usually in venues over a period of time ranging from perhaps a weekend to a month. Each event within the program will usually be separately ticketed. They are largely curated by an Artistic Director, though this genre also includes fringe festivals which are generally open access. Arts festivals are therefore distinctive from greenfield festivals (typically weekend camping festivals such as Glastonbury) and Visual Arts Festivals, or "art festivals" (which concentrate on just the visual arts).

History

Probably the two oldest arts festivals are in England. The Three Choirs Festival in the West of England was established as a "yearly musical assembly" by 1719. The other is the Norfolk and Norwich Festival which first took place in 1772. The largest arts festival in England today is the Brighton Festival Fringe.

Conan O'Brien

Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, musician, and voice actor. He is best known for hosting several late-night talk shows; since 2010 he has hosted Conan on the cable channel TBS. O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was raised in an Irish Catholic family. He served as president of The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News.

After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live. O'Brien was a writer and producer for The Simpsons for two seasons until he was commissioned by NBC to take over David Letterman's position as host of Late Night in 1993. A virtual unknown to the public, O'Brien's initial time on Late Night tenure received unfavorable reviews and remained on a multiweek renewal cycle during its early years. The show generally improved over time and was highly regarded by the time of his departure in 2009. Afterwards, O'Brien relocated from New York to Los Angeles to host his own incarnation of The Tonight Show for seven months until network politics prompted a host change in 2010.