About the festival
Delhi International Arts Festival is positioned as India’s ‘Signature Festival’ and efforts are on to place it on the international cultural map so that it attracts artistes, writers, connoisseurs and tourists from all over the world and serves as a significant platform for cultural diplomacy.

Cutting across geographical barriers and looking beyond cultural stereotypes, Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) is a rare bouquet of all forms of art including literature that unifies the globe into one aesthetic. The festival is not just the capital’s but the entire nation’s first such arts initiative.

Delhi International Arts Festival, the first multi-art, multi-venue annual cultural festival made its debut in December 2007 and spanned over 17 days. The following year DIAF took shape of an umbrella festival for several shorter duration arts events over 24 days, in addition to having a core-curate Festival. October 2009 saw DIAF celebrating the ‘Countdown to the Commonwealth Games 2010’, with a 12 day Festival spread over 50 venues and playing host to almost 2000 artistes. DIAF has already shown signs of influencing the cultural landscape of the city of Delhi. This Festival which gave to Delhi a rich artistic skyline for three years now, comprising visual and performing arts, films, literature, cuisine etc., is designed to involve and sensitize the local community to the multi-dimensional facets of the various art forms from all over the world by providing a common ground for interaction between the artists and the mass audience. The Delhi International Arts Festival is therefore important and necessary for the audience, the artist and for the community in general, driven as it is with its sustained cultural energy.

Mission
Our mission is to be the most exciting, innovative and accessible Festival of the arts this part of the world, and thus promote the cultural, economic and social projection of India as a global soft power. The high visibility of India as a diverse, dynamic, peaceful, multicultural, refined and tolerant nation will also serve to attract potential investors from around the world. Through bilateral and multilateral activity primarily in art and culture, India is projected as a meeting place of ideas.

The Delhi International Arts Festival provides an annual opportunity for Indian and International business houses to develop a strong visionary profile. The festival encourages people to people cultural and emotional ties and helps interfacing between the artistic and business communities. This powerful projection of India in the world serves as a cogent tool for cultural diplomacy and cultural tourism.

Belief
We, at DIAF, believe that aesthetics are never compartmentalized by forms or controlled by countries. Creativity is a notion constantly in search of new contents and forms. DIAF looks forward to inviting art projects from other parts of the world and opening new avenues for explorations of different approaches to the development and creation of artistic works. It also believes in reviving and re-projecting many ancient traditional art forms of India and the sub-continent thereby creating newer audiences and opportunities for continuation of intangible heritage. In this sense the festival committee has taken the first step towards offering a new and unique model that is non-judgmental of the art forms presented and non-bourgeois.

DIAF brings global perspective in terms of aesthetic and artistic experience into the city simultaneously offering local artists the opportunity to interact and perform in an international context. Delhi International Arts Festival is a cultural confluence where boundaries dissolve and the idiom of one world comes alive.

Funding
The Festival is responsible for funding all its activities. As a not-for-profit organization and a registered charity, its budget is a carefully balanced mix of income raised from donations, fundraising and sponsorship, along with public sector grants.

70% of the Festival’s expenditure is allocated directly to meeting the costs of presenting performances, artists’ fees and travel, local hospitality, hiring the venues, and paying the technical costs involved with staging events. The remaining 30% of the budget is spent on marketing, fundraising and administration.

Yet in its nascent stage, the Festival heavily depends on Collaborations and partnerships to ensure larger numbers of venues, art forms and participating artistes as also for publicity and wider reach.

The Union Ministry of Culture, Union Ministry of Tourism, Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Sangeet Natak Akademi, India Tourism Development Corporation, Ministry of Textiles, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Directorate of Film Festivals of India, National School of Drama, National Gallery of Modern Art, Sahitya Akademi, Lalitkala Akademi, National Museum, National Archives, Doordarshan, the National Television and the Govt. of NCT of Delhi and the Zonal Cultural Centers have been invaluable partners of DIAF over the last three years.

DIAF Supporters - 2007- 10

Principal Sponsors
The Times of India and Airtel

Corporate Sponsors
Exim Bank, Unitech, Ericsson, Radisson, Tata, Seagrams, Rosebys, Rahul Sales Ltd.,

Public Sector Sponsors
ONGC, IFCI, Oil India Ltd, GAIL India Ltd., Indian Oil Company, BHEL, HPCL, BPCL, MMTC, STC, TEA Board, ONGC Videsh, NTPC, NHPC, PEC, PTC, REC, Rites, BSNL, IRCTC, Konkan Railway, CONCOR, NFAI, SAIL India Ltd., Power Finance Corporation Ltd., Union Bank of India, IFFCO, IRCON

Foreign Govt Collaborators
Alliance Francaise, Pro-Helvetia, Mexican Embassy, Australian Embassy, Austrian Embassy, Embassy of Japan, Embassy of Turkey, Embassy of Sri Lanka, Embassy of Malta, Embassy of Tanzania, Embassy of Paraguay, Embassy of Belarus, Embassies of Uzbekistan and Slovekia, Embassy of Poland, Visual Industry Promotion Organization, French Embassy, Embassy of Italy, Embassy of Egypt, The Canada Council for the Arts, British Council.

Support in kind
The Lalit, ITC Maurya, The Park, Le Meridian, The  Ashok, Hotel Janpath, Fortune Select Hotel, Habitat World, Spicejet, The Bahai house of Worship, Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, The Cathedral Church of Redemption, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Neemrana Foundation, Epicentre, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Archeological Survey of India, India Islamic Cultural Centre, Crafts Museum, Copal Arts Pvt. Ltd., S.G. Chan dra Foundation, JD Centre of Art, UNODC, Surabhi Foundation, Miranda House College, DLF Promenade, DLF Place, DLF Select City Walk, J C Dceaux, PVR Cinemas, First City, Delhi Diary, Buzz in town.com, 98.3 FM - Radio Mirchi, Times Now, One Ocean, National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, Sri Aurobindo School of Mass Communication, HCL Technologies, SUN Foundation, Capital City Minstrels, Apparao Galleries, Rock & Raaga, Disney, Amnesty International,