With an ale unveiled the year before, you might be forgiven for thinking the Festival could have nothing more exciting up its sleeve for 2018. But you’d be wrong! This year, the Festival hit the digital ground running with the launch of the brand new app! Not only could audience members now book tickets with just a tap on the screen, it was also possible to stay up to date with award winners and reviews, as well as to explore Grahamstown with a selection of handy maps and live updates on the Festival Hoppers. For the first time, the arts were quite literally at the audience’s fingertips, and we continue working to improve the digital user experience every year.

 Another cause for celebration this year came from something that had been around for a lot longer, but was now coming to an end – Dance Umbrella. Launched in 1988 by Vita Promotions, the Dance Umbrella festival offered a free and open platform to any new contemporary dance work. The first iteration of the festival occurred in February 1989 with 14 productions. To celebrate 30 years of excellence, innovation, and growth, the exhibition on our programme – DU30: 3 Decades of Dance Umbrella – contained 30 photographs by John Hogg and Suzy Bernstein, capturing the story of the Dance Umbrella from its 1988 inception to the final edition in 2018.