1994 was a year of incredible celebration, not just for the Festival, but for the country as a whole. Earlier that year, South Africa had held the first general election in which all races and ethnicities were able to participate equally. Though the Apartheid regime had been coming to an end for several years, these elections signified both a definitive ending, and a hopeful new beginning.

This sense of celebration, reflection, and reconciliation naturally carried over into both the National Arts Festival’s official programme and the Fringe. As the Festival Committee’s Chairman expressed:

“Over the past few months this country has celebrated its new found democracy; 1994 Is a year of celebration for South Africa. So too is it for the Standard Bank National Arts Festival, which is 20 this year. The festival has become not only the greatest cultural event on the African continent but also one of the largest and most diverse art festivals anywhere In the world… During the years of cultural repression, the festival was a haven for freedom of expression. Restrictions and censorship never had a role in compiling programmes in any of the art forms. The belief of the Festival Committee and the sponsors is that the more people share in cultural experience the more understanding they gain of their and other people’s contributions to the rich mosaic that is our country. The festival is a cornerstone of reconciliation through music, poetry, theatre and the visual arts, and creates a cultural forum in which all South Africans, and non-South Africans, can participate and partake of the fruits of creative endeavour.”

Included in the work on offer this year was Can Temba’s fantastic play The Suit, directed by Barney Simon, as well as Athol Fugard’s Nongoma, directed by Jerry Mofokeng. Paul Slabolepsky’s Victoria Almost Falls had an impressive cast which included James Borthwick, Lionel Newton and Patrick Ndlovu! The Soweto String Quartet performed to great acclaim, while the Visual Arts programme included an exhibition of metal sculptures which celebrated the artistic interchange between black and white artists in post-war South Africa.

And, the 2nd of July, the Hon. Mr. Justice J G Kriegler unveiled the Four Freedom Stones – four stones placed near the N2 turnoff to commemorate the extension of democratic rights to all South Africans. The stones are so named for the four democratic freedoms identified by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want.