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Creating his fourth and final Perth International Arts Festival, Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway believes the absolute essence of this midsummer celebration of the arts is being "beautifully poised between the University and the City of Perth".

"Because it was founded by UWA and is based on campus, the festival has a distinctive intellectual rigour and world-class excellence," Jonathan tells UNIVIEW . "And while it's grown exponentially since 1953, one factor remains consistent: the relationship with the University is in the DNA of the festival.

"Like a university, the festival must be open and accessible. For us that means finding that balance between satisfying the smart, clever and curious, as well as those who simply want to have an extraordinary experience.

"I think it's easier for an ‘outsider' like me to get the balance right. Coming from the UK allowed me to really look at what's happening in Perth and WA and to see how the festival could take people on a journey.

"I've wilfully gone for extremes because the middle ground is strongly served in Perth, so my programs have ranged from the complex and challenging to the engaging and surprising.

"Designing a festival is a bit like embarking on research not knowing what you'll discover. You start asking questions and come up with a theory that you send out to the world to see if it holds up. It's a journey with no known destination - and I think the UWA connection gives us licence to do that. And just as a scientist makes discoveries along the way, so we and our audiences should be enlightened by our journey.

"My feeling is the festival must be extraordinary. It's not about climbing a hill - it's about traversing the north face of Everest. And what's exciting about 2015 is that we're moving towards a different sort of engagement. It's not only about buying your ticket and coming to be entertained. It's about turning up for a show like I Wish I Was Lonely and preparing to be totally involved.

"This sort of theatre reflects what's happening in society - and in universities where the lectures and tutorials remain in the mix but there are new and exciting ways of engaging with learning."

One of the biggest ‘mountains' Jonathan has scaled for the 2015 festival has been The Giants , arguably the biggest and most expensive production yet staged in Australia. Securing funding was ‘the north face', but an extraordinary range of government and corporate sponsors came to the party for this free event that will bring the ancient art of puppetry to the streets of the city.

The Giants is a three-day marathon event that begins on February 13, 2015, and details of their journey through our streets will be revealed in January. Visit perthfestival.com.au for updates. Parts of the narrative of this ‘larger than life' story with a Great War setting were inspired by a book written by a PhD student (see The girl on Breaksea Island ).

"While public theatrical spectacle has been around since Roman times, the old-school techniques, the pulleys and winches, make The Giants totally engaging and surprising," says Jonathan. "My dream is that it will be so successful that ambitious one-off shows will become a feature of WA's arts scene - because events of this magnitude can be truly transformative for audiences."

It would also be a fitting testament to the vaulting ambition of an artistic director who was never daunted by ‘thinking big'.

What's next for Jonathan? Right now he's so embedded in PIAF 2015 there's no time to contemplate the next step so he's following his festival maxim: the journey that lies ahead is sign-posted ‘destination unknown'.