ILT Festival
ILT Festival is Aarhus' international performing arts festival, bringing magical, thought-provoking, and unforgettable experiences from around the world to Aarhus every other year.
We use the entire city as our stage, presenting a festival filled with thought-provoking performances and international perspectives, addressing some of the most relevant issues of our time in new ways. Whether it's on one of the city's venues, an iconic landmark, or a hidden corner of Aarhus, ILT Festival gathers the entire city around the wonderful world of performing arts.
Our mission is to present some of the world's most acclaimed and innovative performing arts in a diverse festival program that:
- challenges artistic, political, and social conventions
- contributes to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to experience high-quality art
- fosters artistic development
- connects Aarhus to the world
Background for the festival
In 2025 ILT Festival has inspired both the audience and the national performing arts scene for 16 years. As a long-term and unique collaborative project, the festival has played a crucial role in promoting international performing arts trends and fostering communities across cultures and organizations.
The festival is organized by Teatret Svalegangen, Teatret Gruppe 38 and Aarhus Teater - in a close collaboration with all the city's other venues.
In 2025, the festival is held for the ninth time, where children, adults, local, national, established and new audiences are once again welcomed to a spectacular festival program, featuring everything from classical drama to dance, physical theater, installations, puppetry, music and theater concerts. In addition, the festival offers workshops, masterclasses, artistic discussions, and other engaging events for both the industry and the local audience in Aarhus.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTABLE
The artistic vison of the festival is to make an impact and broaden horizons through a diverse artistic program that challenges conventions, sparks debate, and addresses contemporary issues in new and different ways. We aim to break out of our own echo chambers and offer a spectacular program of international productions and new formats that challenge, inspire and creates joy. We use the whole city as our stage and present magical experiences at new and unexpected locations.
Diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are integral parts of ILT's values. Therefore, we strive to present a program that allows for a diversity of voices reflecting the society's diversity. The goal is for everyone across gender, skin color, body shapes, nationality, religion, and sexual orientations, as well as people with and without disabilities, to feel included. We want to clearly signal that everyone is welcome at ILT Festival, which is why we also welcome new residents with free access to the festival in their first year.
Sustainability
The climate crisis is accelerating and at the same time it seems that internationalism and cultural meetings has never been more important As an international festival, travel is an integral part of our work. However, this does not mean that we do not strive to minimize our footprints as much as possible. We have already initiated several sustainability initiatives, but we continue to explore new methods and partnerships that can further support our green transition, making the festival as sustainable as possible – and hopefully contributing to a positive development beyond ourselves
ILT Festival is organized by
The festival is organized by the three local venues Teatret Svalegangen, Teatret Gruppe 38 and Aarhus Teater.
Partners & sponsors
We would like to acknowledge our generous partners and supporters. Without you ILT Festival would not be possible. Thank you.
