Charlie Unwin has a successful background in commerce and the performing arts.  He said it was almost by chance that he came to the arts after a career in business.  He gave an amusing story about his introduction to the arts.  He said it started with a trip to the theatre.  His idea was to impress a new female companion.  The outcome was that he fell for the theatre and sadly not the girl.
After graduating with BPSA in acting, he worked for a while as an actor, primarily in film and TV.  Jobs were not easy to come by for many actors, so he and a friend came up with the plan to stage a different play every week for a year in a ‘found-space’ on Karangahape Road, and use different actors, directors and playwrights in each production. Over the year they gave paid work to almost 80 artists in Auckland, and created their own successful theatre company.  He became part of the team that created the inaugural Auckland Fringe Festival and worked alongside the Auckland Arts Festival. From there it was an easy transition into festival work.
Charlie grew up in a combination of Timaru, Christchurch and Wanaka.  Consequently, Charlie was no stranger to Dunedin having had many a trip down south. From Directing the Nelson Arts Festival (his previous post) the move to Dunedin was a career progression.
Charlie said that the Dunedin Festival has a good strong history of delivering top quality performing arts, and a loyal discerning audience that appreciate the arts. It also has the benefit of a strong brand of one director, Nicholas McBryde, that  has developed over several years.
Charlie brings to the Festival some new approaches.  Besides changing the name to stress the Dunedin connection, he also wished it to be more reflective of the community and more diverse.  He sees a real opportunity to engage the wider community through free and participatory events. He wanted to work with Iwi, recent migrants, schools and different cultural groups to ensure that everybody has access to the arts and to develop pathways for youth into arts to encourage the next generation.  Charlie is aware that these things take time. This year will be a start as the Festival is aimed at a wider community whilst still delivering high-quality arts experiences to Ōtepoti.
Charlie spent the remainder of his presentation giving a brief introduction to all the events in the festival.