Two significant changes were afoot in the tight knit Festival team in 2008. We were in the processing of bidding farewell to Lynette Marais, our Festival Director, who was entering a well-deserved and hard-earned retirement. Lynette had steered the Festival ship remarkably for more than two decades. As Ayanda Mjekula, Chairman of the National Arts Festival Board wrote: “we are certainly going to be poorer without her passion for the arts, her tenacity and the energy with which she goes about staging the Festival each year.”

In the midst of this goodbye, however, we were also wishing a very warm welcome to a new member of the Festival family – the indomitable Tony Lankester. Having studied for a degree in Journalism at Rhodes University, Tony was no stranger to Makhanda or the National Arts Festival. In fact, in 1991, Tony had been part of the Rhodes Music Radio team who were granted a temporary broadcast license for the duration of that year’s National Arts Festival! 2008 was the beginning of Tony’s 12 year tenure as our CEO, during which time he helped to strengthen our roots and expand our horizons.