News

IF 2021 is a free, 24-hour online fes­ti­val of impro­vised arts, fea­tur­ing over 150 inter­na­tion­al per­form­ers of all dis­ci­plines — music, dance, the­atre, poet­ry, visu­al arts, and more. Pre­sent­ed by the Inter­na­tion­al Insti­tute for Crit­i­cal Stud­ies in Impro­vi­sa­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph, with the sup­port of spon­sors and part­ners from around the globe., this all-night cel­e­bra­tion of the arts will be free to stream online start­ing on August 14^th at mid­night (UTC+1).

UMFM is pleased to be on the part­ners for this year’s event and will be air­ing 8 hours of this amaz­ing con­tent, start­ing at 2AM CST run­ning through until 10AM!

This unique fes­ti­val will be a chance for you to recon­nect with the arts from your home. It’s a cel­e­bra­tion of this vast, diverse group of inno­v­a­tive artists doing what they do best: shar­ing inspir­ing per­for­mances that will make you smile, reflect, and re-con­nect with your sur­round­ings & com­mu­ni­ty. Be sure to tune in for per­for­mances by Win­nipeg’s own Jor­dan San­galang, as well as Win­nipeg ex-pats Bob Wise­man, Dean­na Rad­ford and Blunderspublik!

While we can now see the light at the end of the COVID-19 tun­nel, we still rec­og­nize that this sum­mer brings sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges: most fes­ti­vals have been post­poned or dig­i­tized for yet anoth­er sum­mer, artists are clam­our­ing for ways to con­nect with audi­ences, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers are long­ing for expe­ri­ences with the arts. Through IF 2021, we want to inspire atten­dees to feel more con­nect­ed with one anoth­er and make the sum­mer a bit brighter as we look towards singing, danc­ing, and cel­e­brat­ing in pub­lic spaces again soon.

We’re All About Respect­ful Participation!

IF 2021’s 24-hour online Fes­ti­val is meant as a site of dig­i­tal gath­er­ing in which every­one attend­ing is wel­come to lis­ten deeply, imag­ine freely, and invite sparks of inspi­ra­tion and joy. It is intend­ed to recon­nect audi­ence mem­bers with them­selves, their imme­di­ate com­mu­ni­ty, and an inter­na­tion­al web of open-mind­ed art lovers. Cre­at­ing such a space is only pos­si­ble when we ensure respect­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion and a safe, inclu­sive dig­i­tal environment.

IF 2021 atten­dees are wel­come to share thoughts, ideas, and feel­ings through our live chat dur­ing the Fes­ti­val, as well as through their social media accounts before, dur­ing, and after the event. We invite these chan­nels of com­mu­ni­ca­tion as a means to lift one anoth­er up, and will not tol­er­ate their use to bul­ly, harass, or oth­er­wise make Fes­ti­val artists or oth­er Fes­ti­val atten­dees feel unwel­come. The Festival’s social media accounts are mod­er­at­ed reg­u­lar­ly, and the live chat for IF 2021 will be mon­i­tored close­ly for the dura­tion of the Festival.

To find your local start time, please use the handy tool on the IF 2021 web­site — you can view the full list of the par­tic­i­pat­ing per­form­ers on the exten­sive artists page.

Due to the enthu­si­asm of our artists and part­ners this year, we are thrilled to be extend­ing IF 2021 beyond the 24 hour mark! This year’s fes­ti­val will run for an addi­tion­al hour and a half (25.5 hours total). We hope you can join us for this extend­ed fes­ti­val finale!