Arts: Appointed director of the Perth International Arts Festival to shake up Australia's oldest arts event, Irishman Sean Doran has nonetheless had to face down critics of his 'pioneering spirit'. Now he feels vindicated, he tells Brian Boyd

'The place God forgot to cast man out of" was D.H. Lawrence's description of Perth, Australia's west coast "paradise on earth", which lies, seemingly, at the end of the world. With the nearest city more than three hours away by plane, Perth is the most isolated major population centre in the world. Its epic landscape, perfect climate and cultural heritage all enticed Derry-born Sean Doran to the city three years ago when he was offered the job of director of Perth's International Arts Festival (PIAF).

He remembers flying over Western Austra-lia for the first time and being dumbfounded at how, with only 10 minutes to landing in the city, there was still no sign of life below.

"The city just sits there on the edge of the desert, and I felt that pioneering spirit," says the affable 41-year-old .

Lured from his previous job as director of the Belfast Arts Festival, Doran was taking over the job of running "the Edinburgh of the Southern Hemisphere", replacing the previous director who had been charge for 23 years.

"I wanted to bring change, throw the balls up into the air, so to speak," he says. "Previously, Perth had always been a well-run multi-arts affair, which was of a certain scale and a certain ambition.

"I took over in 2000 and was to be in charge of four festivals, up to 2003, and really wanted to shake things up. Naturally I expected some resistance, because when you create change a lot of people feel a sense of loss."

A four-week affair, running from mid- January to mid-February, the PIAF has an importance over and above its artistic remit. Within Australia, Perth, because of its geographical distance (Perth to Sydney is the same distance as Dublin to Moscow), can feel marginalised and is often portrayed in the east of the country as a "cultural backwater". The festival is not just a flagship for Perth, but for the whole massive Western Australia area (which is the size of India). One of the first things Doran noticed was how much mainstream press coverage was afforded to the festival, and how closely its progress and development was scrutinised by local politicans.

"For all that it did right, though, I felt that the festival had been set in a mould for the past 23 years," he says. "I felt confident about initiating change because when I was headhunted for the job, they must have been aware of my somewhat radical and iconoclastic approach.

"One of the first things I did was to move the date of the festival forward by three weeks. By doing this, I brought it into the summer holiday period, thus allowing far more people the chance to attend various events. I really wanted to change the demographics, to attract more young people and also to bring it out into the streets, to announce it and to programme plenty of free outdoor entertainment.

"And it was important to me also to bring stuff to the suburbs and the inner city, areas that had been neglected in the past. For example, we now have an opera festival which takes place one hour south of the city."

All eyes were trained on this "radical and iconoclastic" Irishman in his first year in the job. Doran was widely praised for his imaginative changes and his sense of creative daring - that year, the festival hosted Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, Deborah Warner and an 18-hour Chinese opera.

However, the PIAF of 2000 made a loss of Aus $1.5 million. This fact, coupled with "a group of people who were resistant to the changes I was implementing", led to an immediate backlash. The West Australian newspaper wrote that there was "a deep- seated malaise within the state's major cultural event and the dissatisfaction can only be put down to Doran's management".

The attacks remained personalised. The artistic director of the writers' festival (a festival within the festival) resigned after Doran's début, saying she wanted to "draw the industry's attention to the total mismanagement of the Perth festival".

DORAN argues that some people "may have found the pace of change too fast". He points to the fact that he was appointed to change radically the nature of the festival, which many felt was suffering from a case of arrested development.

Given how important the PIAF is to the region of Western Australia (and not just in the money it generates, but as a symbol of pride), Doran feels he was being attacked because he was "an outsider" coming in to change a local institution.

"I noticed in the press coverage that I was not referred to as 'Sean Doran, festival director' but as 'Irishman Sean Doran'," he says.

He remembers one particular article, which asked why a man from a city "better known for its bigotry, bullets and bombs" was in charge of the festival.

"I always saw the job as being a marathon, not a sprint," he says, "I went there knowing I had four festivals, it was a four-year journey and that the changes I wanted to bring would evolve over those four festivals. Certainly, at times it was very difficult, but I wanted to continue."

Undettered by the criticism, he continued "re-shaping and re-moulding".

In keeping with his wish to change the demographic of the festival, he introduced a Fringe Festival, of which Ben Elton is now the patron. He also introduced a popular music festival, which has seen the likes of Pulp's Jarvis Cocker journey to Perth.

He has certainly succeeded in making Perth a "festival of festivals" with nine different events now clustered together under the PIAF umbrella, including festivals of jazz, literature, chamber music, visual arts, opera and popular music. This year, more than 500,000 people attended both the ticketed and the free events.

The budget for the festival next year is Aus $10 million and its partners are the Lotteries Commission, the University of Western Australia and the City of Perth. In February, PIAF announced an Aus $1 million donation from Japanese businessman Haruhisa Handa - the largest single philanthropic donation ever given to an Australian festival.

Next year's PIAF will be Doran's last. As it is also the 50th anniversary of this, the oldest Australian arts festival, he intends to go out with something of a bang.

Perth will stage the first indoor/outdoor presentation of Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the last opera in Wagner's Ring cycle, in an attempt to marry the West Australian landscape with 19th-century music. Just as spectacularly, Turner Prize winner Antony Gormley is creating an installation of abstract steel figures on a salt lake in the remote desert outback - seven hours from the city of Perth. A hut to house 16 people will be built for the duration of the installation, allowing visitors a chance to spend some time with the work.

"Most importantly in next year's festival, we're reflecting the fact that seven out of 10 people in Perth are from elsewhere, and apart from showcasing art by indigenous people, we're also trying to articulate a non-European voice and reach out to the Indian Ocean rim," Doran says.

Saying he now feels "vindicated" but that he has no future plans once he finishes up next year, Doran has just completed a quick round-the-world tour, launching PIAF 2003 in Dublin, London, New York and Los Angeles. He has been talking up "cultural tourism", promoting the idea that people should visit Australia when the festival is on.

"I keep telling people it's like Edinburgh, but you can go the beach between shows . . ."

The 2003 Perth International Arts Festival takes place from January 16th to February 16th. Website: www.perthfestival.com.au