The high number of artists and performances included in the Sibiu International Theater Festival starting with the 2016 edition are turning the event into the largest performance arts festival in the world, after having been ranked third for many years, said the event’s director, Constantin Chiriac, quoted by local Mediafax.

Similar festivals in Avignon and Edinburgh were considered as being the biggest in the world until recently.

Love is the theme of the 2017 edition of the Sibiu International Theater Festival, Chiriac said. The festival, which is at its 24th edition this year, takes place between June 9 and June 18.

“The theme of the festival is love. I cared about this theme because we are in a time of hate, of discord and of terrible division. We are trying to give meaning to our work, by reaching out to people, society, structures, that beauty can unite us. And this feeling, as Albert Einstein said, is the greatest force in the universe, and it needs to be taken into account,” Chiriac said during a press conference in Sibiu.

Last year, the festival gathered artists from 70 countries and featured a total of 472 events, to an average of 67,000 spectators daily. Famous American actor and director Tim Robbins was the festival’s guest of honor in 2016.

The first tickets for this year’s run of the festival go on sale in April. The schedule is being updated here.

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editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo: Paul Băilă/ Sibiu International Theater Festival Facebook Page)