Arts Festival

          Arts festivals in the western sense are a fairly recent development in Cambodia.

        Since the mid 1990s the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has sought to enhance community awareness of Khmer culture by organising national festivals in a variety of arts disciplines. These include the National Culture Day, the National Festival of Film and Video, the National Festival of Khmer Cuisine, the National Festival of Khmer Weaving, the National Festival of Kite Flying, the National Festival of Painting and Sculpture and the National Festival of Traditional Music, Chapei and Ayai.

          In recent years the area immediately in front of Angkor Wat has become a popular venue for major performances. Although some of these have taken the form of one-off appearances by international stars, an annual festival of Ramayana dance - currently known as Les nuits d'Angkor - has become a regular fixture and is now regularly supplemented through appearances by overseas artists.

       In December 2005 the Phnom Penh Arts Festival (PPAF) was launched as Cambodia's first ever broad-based arts initiative, which aimed to bring together leading arts organisations, local artists and community groups to share the spirit of Cambodian culture. A free event open to all members of the public, the festival seeks to provide a showcase for Cambodian performers, musicians, actors and artists, all of whom offer their time for free.

          For useful information on the logistics of presenting overseas work in Cambodia please see the International cultural exchange section.