An international event bringing together theatre companies and dance groups from Türkiye and abroad with the audience, The Istanbul Theatre Festival was first held in 1989. After the directorships of Zehra İpşiroğlu (1991-93), Dikmen Gürün (1993-2012), and Leman Yılmaz (2013-21), the festival adopted a curatorial approach, appointing Işıl Kasapoğlu as its first curator in 2022. For every two years, a different curator is chosen from the field of performing arts (an actor, director, dramaturg, or a playwright) to be responsible for the programming of the festival. Held annually until 2002 and biennially from 2002 to 2017 in May, the festival returned to its annual schedule in 2017 and moved to November. Once every year, the festival hosts carefully selected companies and artists that open up new horizons for both the audience and the art world by bringing national and international, classical and contemporary renditions to the stage through its unique lens.

The festival’s first production, Tribute to Nâzım, written and performed by Genco Erkal was staged in 2002, on the 100th anniversary of Nâzım Hikmet’s birthday. Following this first step, local companies have begun to participate in the festival with their new projects. This process stimulated the festival in every possible way and still continues to do so. Aiming to underline artistic intersections, similarities and disparities, the festival puts emphasis on co-productions and expands the scope of its activities in this field. One of the events carried out by the festival within this scope was Nefes, co-produced with Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch in 2003 and still travelling the world. Another event that lies within this framework is the fourth edition of the International Theatre Olympics that gathered numerous companies in Istanbul in 2006 as part of the festival.

Every year since 1997 the Istanbul Theatre Festival presents two Lifetime Achievement Awards to one local and one international artist. With its educational programmes, co-productions and themes that are related to social problems, the Istanbul Theatre Festival continues to bring new topics and works in performance arts to Istanbul.

The Istanbul Theatre Festival welcomed a new programming method and adopted a curatorial approach in 2022. For every two years, a different curator is chosen from the field of performing arts (an actor, director, dramaturg, or a playwright) to be responsible for the programming of the festival. The first curator to programme the festival between 2022 and 2023 was Işıl Kasapoğlu.