And although she says box office is important - 'it's a way you can tell that people wanted to come, they're making an investment to see something and you can document attendance' - she refuses to court sales by scheduling sure-fire sellers.

Instead, for her second Melbourne festival, she's again offering an array of cutting-edge shows and exhibitions, many of which cross boundaries between established performance styles. The aim is to attract a younger and broader audience.

Edmunds, 39, has invited no big-name orchestra or international opera. And she has programmed no ballet and little classical music. It's a long way from 1986, when the festival was founded in partnership with Italy's Spoleto festival, and director Giancarlo Menotti programmed events such as the Royal Spanish Ballet and a Ken Russell production of Madama Butterfly.

Not surprisingly, some leading arts commentators and regular festival-goers aren't impressed.

This year's major offerings include Robert Wilson's production of I La Galigo. Presented through movement, music and visuals, it has no dialogue and is sung in a language now defunct - even in its place of origin. Inspired by an Indonesian epic poem, the programme notes says it 'defies categorisation, pushing the limits of what can be defined as avant garde'.

As well, there's a show during which - over the 21/2 weeks of the festival - the performers will weigh out 33 tonnes of rice (each grain apparently representing a person living on the Pacific rim). And there's a visual theatre piece from Romeo Castellucci performed in a room with no doors, windows or furniture that's billed as 'deeply disturbing'.

The Ringtone Society will perform the world's first mobile-phone ringtone concert series, and present a website where specially written ringtones can be downloaded. New York poet Sekou Sundiata will deliver a monologue about his recovery from kidney disease, and Kyoto collective dumb type will present Voyage, a combination of performance and installation in which everything appears to float.

Rise:Rose by Kota Yamazaki/Fluid hug-hug is a dance-performance combining modern dance, hip hop and Japanese butoh, described as 'an exploration of a new Asian world and the sensitive human relationships within it'.

The visual arts programme, which Edmunds is curating for the first time, has a theme of animals in art, explored by artists such as Zhao Bandi, from the mainland, whose stylised photographs of himself and his toy panda are based on images on traditional Chinese calendars.

Among the few productions approaching traditional are George Orwell's 1984, by Tim Robbins' Los Angeles-based the Actors' Gang, Japan's Orchestra Kanazawa, and Blind Date by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The Borodin Quartet will play Dmitri Shostakovich. And although there's a new work from British director Peter Greenaway, it's an exploration of video games.

Edmunds is now weathering a storm of protest that the festival should have broader appeal, leading to lively debate about the purpose of such festivals.

Edmunds says she's happy with the reaction, even though it's 'uncomfortable for me personally'.

'When we say in the arts that we value public discussion and debate, we're having that debate now. I have to be able to stand there and say that public discussion about art is a relevant one. You can't do a job like this if you want to make everybody unpassionate about the arts. It results in a kind of mushy mediocrity if you're not willing to engage in public discussion.'

Edmunds is the first non-Australian to direct MIAF. Her Australian partner, Ros Warby (a dancer and choreographer, with whom she has a two-year-old child) is one of this year's festival performers, with a new solo dance work Monumental. The programming decision raised eyebrows.

Edmunds came to Melbourne with a clear vision for her festivals - one the board presumably shares, since her two-year contract was recently extended to three. Her approach offers little to those who make up much of the subscriber base of institutions such as the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia. If Edmunds is concerned that the festival will lose some of these (often well-heeled) supporters, she's not showing it. She says she wants to involve indigenous Australians, those from migrant backgrounds, and people who can't afford high ticket prices. She has again included a large free programme this year. More 25- to 35-year-olds attended the shows last year, with more walking and taking public transport to get there than in the past.

'I approach it as a curator, so I'm predominantly interested in the way in which artists are expanding the potential of their art form,' Edmunds says. 'It doesn't always mean I have to like it, so it's less to do with taste.'

Her choices are based on 'a certain kind of expertise combined with instinct - you recognise that the artist's vision is very mature, their contribution to their art form is rather significant and people have the right to see and experience directly the kind of calibre and rigour that artist is giving us'.

Edmunds doesn't set out to have a festival theme, but because so many contemporary artists are addressing similar notions, it tends to hold together. 'I try not to have a theme, but really deeply look at what is happening in artistic circles all over the world. What you start to find is that artists are sharing similar concerns.'

Whether Melbourne audiences, and those from interstate and Asia who have attended past festivals, will take a chance on Edmunds' vision remains to be seen. But she's optimistic. 'Last year, most shows sold out.'