When Iain Grandage was being interviewed for the position of Perth Festival artistic director he knew he held a trump card: he would be the only director to hail from the city.

“I was aware festival directors always fell in love with Perth over the course of their tenure, so my pitch was ‘Imagine what you could do if you were in love with the place already, you knew all the practising artists already, you had friends who lived here and around the state already so could access people immediately, and you had friends who work across business, the top end of government and in various organisations,'" Grandage says.