Timeline Test styling
51 Years of The Festival
For many years, the Jazz programme had been a favourite amongst festival audiences. Despite withdrawing as the primary sponsor, Standard Bank continued to sponsor more niche elements of the programme, including the Standard Bank Jazz Festival, and the Youth Jazz Festival. The Jazz programme, always vibrant and varied, includes performances from seasoned professional to emerging students, local artists and international guests, and everyone in between! In 2007, the lineup included husband and wife duo Nathasha Roth and James Scholfield, the Dutch Jazz Connection – an ensemble from the Netherlands – and the Swiss/South African Quintet. School and Youth bands were…Read More
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…Read More
Seasoned festival attendees might have noticed that, in 2012, the programme was slightly edgier and more daring than it had been in the past. Explaining this choice, the new Chairperson of the Artistic Committee Jay Pather, explored the role of the Festival, and the arts, in the contemporary political landscape: “In our deliberations at the National Arts Festival, the number of applications that we receive is demographically skewed. It is a sad reflection of how far we have come (or rather, not) in attempts at education and development, redress and funding opportunities. A disturbing trend recurs. Young black artists emerge…Read More
Where Jay Pather’s welcome to the 2012 Festival highlighted the innovation of that year, his greeting in 2013 was more what he himself called “a call to realism.” The 2013 programme was burdened by many of the same cares that affect the National Arts Festival, and arts organisations nationwide, today. A lack of funding, coupled with a lack of clarity and slow delivery of the available funding, resulted in a programme in which, tragically, many works were proposed and accepted by the Artistic Committee, but were subsequently unable to be brought to fruition. As Jay described this: “in sum what…Read More
VIBRANT FORCE FOR ADVOCACY AND CHALLENGING THE CONSCIENCE – A message from the Artistic Committee “The 2015 programme of the National Arts Festival has been shaped by diverse threads: the heated national debate surrounding the legacies of South African history; significant anniversaries of a number of arts icons; the global public engagement concerning the limits of creative liberty; and the Festival’s commitment to free expression and to human dignity. We pride ourselves on providing opportunities for South African artists to take creative risks in expressing themselves with integrity about matters that concern them. We recognise the arts as vibrant forces…Read More
In his final year as Artistic Director, Ishmail Mohammed had organized the 2016 programme into Curatorial Strands – themes running through the diverse programme elements, allowing it to be understood both in parts and as a whole. These six Curatorial Strands were: Celebrating Women; Conflict & Resolution; the Politics of Identity; Legends & Legacies; Re-imagining Classics; and Art for Art’s Sake. Each of these strands was intended to entertain, inspire and challenge, in ways best suited to the nature of each piece. Within these strands, the Curated programme included Scorched with Jaques de Silva and Cherae Halley; The House of…Read More
Introducing… the Festival of Ale! For the first time, the National Arts Festival had its own signature drinks. In partnership with the Featherstone Brewery, we crafted the Festival Ale so that thirsty patrons, tired technicians and excited artists could look forward to something cold, frosty, and truly special at the end of each day! The programme also included a lovely dedication to the Fringe, written by our own Ayanda Mjekula, Chairman of the National Arts Festival Board: “70 years ago a collective of artists, feeling ignored and neglected by mainstream arts institutions and festivals in the UK, created a ‘fringe’…Read More
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…Read More
