The Festival headed into the 80’s with an increasingly strengthened sense of identity and purpose. For the first time called the ‘National’ Festival of the Arts, the importance and scale of the work done annually in Makhanda was beginning to solidify in the artistic community. Mr DM Hopkins, then Chairman of the Festivals Committee, expressed some of this vision in his foreword to this year’s programme:

“To enrich the educational and cultural development of the peoples of South Africa” is the objective adopted this year by the 1820 Foundation as its aim for the eighties.

Proud objectives need to be supported by deeds and in welcoming you to this year’s Five Roses National Arts Festival of the Arts we bring you a programme that we believe has excellence and quality which supports our aim and should be expected of the nation’s premier annual cultural event…

The Arts provide a means whereby men may stretch their imaginations and test the limits of their understanding, thereby making it possible to develop a tolerance for other attitudes, different points of view. In this country, the world in microcosm, it could be argued, understanding is the key to the future. In learning to dance, play and sing together old prejudices will fall away and with the resulting interaction new and essentially South African mutations will emerge.

This is our challenge, our hope for renaissance.”