15 Notable Art Festivals To Checkout in 2024

15 Notable Art Festivals To Checkout in 2024

2024 has only just begun and yet it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting years in recent memory. The excitement is in no small part due to all of the phenomenal art festivals taking place around the globe. Tag along as we guide you through 15 notable art festivals to check out in 2024.

The purpose of art festivals is to build community through creativity. Whether it is film, music, fine arts, or any combination of other mediums, festivals bring people together to celebrate the collective joy that art creates amongst strangers and friends alike. Art festivals are brief experiences that can last days or months and remind us of the value of expression.

North America is known for some of the boldest and most exciting art festivals in the world. Because of the continent’s wide array of cultural influences and artist enclaves, North America offers a diverse line-up of art festivals. 

Perhaps the most well-known music festival in America, Coachella 2024 brings renowned recording artists Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator, and Doja Cat to headline this year’s festival. Spanning across two weekends from Friday, April 12 – Sunday, April 21 in Indico, California. Coachella is a celebration of music, installation art, and sustainability. It is the perfect place to listen to your favorite hits and discover new artists. For those looking to see the work of visual artists, checkout Morag Myerscough, an artist with a colorful flare!

The mission of Burning Man is to “facilitate and extend the culture” of the event after the festival ends, as such you will find that Burning Man is all about community and connection. The 2024 Burning Man festival takes place in Black Rock City, Nevada from Sunday, August 25 – Monday, September 2, 2024. The festival was founded in 1986 and has always prided itself on its eccentric attitude. The titular wooden sculptures are a marvel of creativity and design. Each year a new one is built with the sole purpose of being set ablaze. Additionally, you can head over to the Burning Man Art Archive to see previous installations exhibited at the festival.

The Montreal International Mural Festival aims to highlight art that will live on after the festival’s conclusion. Dates for the 2024 mural festival have not been posted yet, but if this year’s fest is anything like 2023’s you can expect a myriad of free, live events that showcase mural art. The festival offers guided tours of the city’s many phenomenal murals, which luckily run beyond just the timeframe of the festival. 

It was only a matter of time before our art festival tour of the United States brought us to New York City. Tribeca Film Festival is the perfect festival for anyone looking to head to the Big Apple. This week-and-a-half-long festival starts on Wednesday, June 5, and concludes on Sunday, June 16, 2024. Tribeca is a jam-packed art festival where you can see some of the most beautiful films of 2024. However, the festival has so much more to offer, including television episodes, live music, and a lineup of exhibitions and discussions about game art and design.

If you are headed to Texas’ metropolitan art capital of Austin, you don’t want to miss South by Southwest (SXSW). The 2024 SXSW arts festival takes the stage on Friday, March 8 – Saturday, March 16, 2024. SXSW is a celebration of film, comedy, and music. Speaking of music, one of the most unique parts of the SXSW is Flatstock 92. A love letter to the visual artists behind the music, at Flatstock 92, is the perfect place to purchase all the concert posters your heart desires.

Wrapping up the calendar year is Art Basel Miami Beach, an art festival that runs from Friday, December 6 through Sunday, December 8, 2024. Art Basel is a series of international art festivals that first began in Basel, Switzerland in the 1970s. The festival is now celebrated internationally in Hong Kong, Paris, and in the U.S. at Florida’s Miami Beach. Art Basel Miami Beach emphasizes the importance of exhibiting modern art. Art Basel Miami Beach is perfect for the art lover looking to see new and exciting pieces on the cutting edge of today’s modern art scene.

Nestled atop Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, the Telluride Film Festival gathers the international film community each year to revel in the beauty of cinema. This year, Telluride welcomes renowned filmmakers and the general public alike from Thursday, August 29 – Monday, September 2, 2024. However, for those not willing to wait, Telluride publishes numerous recordings of festival panels, Q&As, and artist discussions on the festival website each year.

One of the most recent additions to the North American art festival list is the Luminato Festival in Toronto which was founded in 2007. Luminato was designed to share the beauty and imagination of Toronto with the rest of the world. The young art festival quickly made a name for itself with 3,600+ performances by 15,000+ artists from over 40 countries in its first decade alone. The festival returns to the streets of “the six” this year on Tuesday, June 6 – Friday, June 16, 2024.

Less than 15 miles from the RMCAD campus, the Denver Arts Festival brings the festivities to the front range on Thursday, May 25, and Friday, May 26, 2024. This year, Denver celebrates 25 years of the free arts festival, hosted at Denver’s Conservatory Green in the Central Park neighborhood. With countless vendors lining up on Memorial Day weekend, the Denver Arts Festival is perfect for art lovers looking to meet artists and vendors and broaden their art collection, or just do a bit of window shopping!

Over in Europe, there are hundreds of astounding arts festivals taking place in 2024, here are a few of our favorites.

If it’s one of your dreams as an artist to see Venice, Italy, then Biennale Arte is the perfect reason to make that dream come true! In the beautiful and romantic “floating city,” Biennale Arte will take place from Saturday, April 20 – Sunday, November 24, 2024. You’ll have plenty of time to catch this nearly eight-month-long festival, which has gone on since 1895 and now honors cinema, art, music, dance, architecture, and theater. 

Located directly across from the Eiffel tower the Art Paris is a celebration of modern art made all around the world. This weekend long art festival gathers in Paris from Thursday, April 4 – Sunday, April 7 2024. This year’s show will feature work from more than 900 contemporary artists, and luckily their website gives you the perfect chance to browse the festival’s online gallery from the convenience of your home.

The lineup for Glastonbury 2024 has not been announced yet, but if 2023 was any indication, Arctic Monkeys, Elton John, Lana Del Ray, Guns n Roses, and Lil Nas X didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all the phenomenal talent that played last year’s festival. What is known for this year’s festival is that it will take place on Wednesday, June 26 – Sunday, June 30, 2024. Don’t miss one of the UK’s premier art festivals. For fans of photography, checkout photos from previous years’ festivals here.

The Festival D’Avignon was founded in 1947 in Avignon, France. For over 75 years, the festival has become synonymous with contemporary and performance art, pushing the boundaries of both art forms. Similar to the Telluride Film Festival, Festival D’Avignon’s website houses an incredible backlog of recorded artist discussions. The 78th annual festival returns this year on Saturday, June 29 – Sunday, July 21, 2024!

The home of Beethoven and one of the former music capitals of the world, Vienna, Austria hosts the annual Vienna Design Week this September! Founded in 2007, the design festival hosts over 40,000 visitors to attend more than 200 events each year to celebrate topics spanning from urban planning to food design. Vienna Design Week 2024 will take place starting on Friday, September 20 through Sunday, September 29, 2024.

Barcelona, Spain hosts the nomadic Manifesta 15 Festival, which has traveled all around Europe since its foundation. The festival has called many urban epicenters home to support its mission of defining the “relation between culture and civic society, investigating and instigating positive social change through contemporary culture.” As such, you can expect more than just a week of programming as the festival explores the splendor of Barcelona from Sunday, September 8 through Sunday, November 24, 2024. Manifesta explores the relationship between art and culture in Barcelona, by looking into the city’s urban design.

No matter where an art festival is located or the medium in which it highlights, all festivals have one thing in common: a mission to motivate and inspire dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people through creativity and imagination. Spark your creativity and meet like-minded people this 2024!

Check out RMCAD’s events calendar for all upcoming events both in person and online. If you want to learn more about art + design at RMCAD, visit our academic programs to take a deeper dive into further creative opportunities.

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