Well received and full of great theatre opportunities, the Dublin Theatre Festival offers guests a fun array of shows and provides Dublin with an almost inner dialogue that would otherwise go unexplored without the event.

I love a good festival, whether it's London's Greenwich and Docklands international festival, Avignon's feast of theatre or the ragbag of shows that make up the uncurated Edinburgh fringe. There seem to be ever more in the calendar: Manchester international festival is a relative newcomer and others, such as Spill festival of performance, are reinventing themselves. The latter takes over Ipswich for four days at the end of the month, and the programme is pretty mouth-watering.

But what is it that makes for a really good arts festival in any part of the world, whether it's Perth in Australia, Grahamstown festival in South Africa or the Norfolk and Norwich festival?

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