November 21, 2025

Below is an excerpt from the full story by The Current

It’s getting much more costly to keep Festival International, international. Visa costs for international musicians have soared, as have processing times. And it’s complicating the work of putting together a heavy-hitting lineup befitting a 40th anniversary. The bureaucratic hurdles have made American tours a riskier affair for international artists and a more expensive endeavor for stateside talent buyers like Stafford.