HATCHfest is the first international mentoring festival for the creative and media arts communities. This festival is a celebration that springs naturally from the HATCH mission: To provide mentorship, education, inspiration and recognition to the next generation of creative innovators. Each HATCHfest brings together luminaries in the arts and entertainment world to serve as mentors to groundbreaking new creative talent. The magic of HATCHfest comes to life when this unique community of creative minds from many disciplines including film, music, journalism, architecture, photography, graphic design, fashion design, technology, performing art and fine art, engage in the spirit of mentoring, networking and play.

HATCHfests are multi-day experiences that include performances and exhibitions; interactive mentoring labs, panels and demonstrations; lectures by the most innovative artists in the world; parties, awards and an overall community of creativity, optimism and inspiration. While mentors and groundbreaking artists are invited guests chosen by HATCH for each festival, everyone with a creative spirit is invited to attend. HATCHfests energize creativity, community, culture and commerce in the cities and regions where they are held.

HATCHfest began in Bozeman, Montana and has been celebrating creative mentorship each October since 2004. Now, the festival’s uniqueness and popularity have inspired a second event location. Beginning in April 2009 the HATCHfest experience will expand to Asheville, North Carolina and will thereafter become a biannual event held in Asheville each spring and in Bozeman each autumn. In future years, HATCH leaders envision the addition of a third, rotating international location for HATCHfest given the global reach of the HATCH mission and community.