FUSE International is all about bringing the best young artists from all over the world to Kingston every Summer. It provides a platform to share and celebrate creative talent. Since launching as the International Youth Arts Festival (IYAF) in 2009, it has grown to become the biggest festival of its kind in the UK.
The artforms FUSE International incorporates are changing all the time. We don’t like to be prescriptive – fundamentally, if you have an idea, we want to hear about it. And whatever it is you bring, you can be assured of a supportive and energetic environment in which to present it.
Learn more about our plans for FUSE International 2022 below. The festival runs from 1 to 10 July 2022. We look forward to welcoming you soon.
The renaming of the International Youth Arts Festival was initially stimulated by feedback and discussions with our cohort of Young Creatives and then followed by wider input from festival participants, audience members, out staff, Board and wider networks.
The message was that young people – particularly those in the 18-26 age bracket – did not like the word ‘youth’ in the title of the festival. They did not connect to it and they certainly did not feel excited by it.
Reviewing IYAF’s success over its first decade, and in positioning the festival for the next 10 years, the artistic leadership sited the participants and audiences in higher education and their emerging professional years as the main target for developing the festival in future. The name IYAF appeared as a hurdle to exactly the demographic we were aiming to focus on, and over a period of extensive consultation and debate FUSE International, with its contemporary feel, was born.
The ambition of FUSE International will remain as before. Our hope is that with the new name we will be better placed to reach a demographic which will grow the festival even more. IYAF has always about making connections and the energy which is created by artistic encounters and exchange. It is about connecting the different artforms: Dance, Music, Theatre, Comedy, Film, Visual Art; connecting the age group age 5- 26; connecting the young people of this island to the rest of the world and FUSE International has been welcomed as a name to express that.
